After the faded green iceberg lettuce was replaced with brighter leaf mixes from local farms, the salad bars in schools around Northwest Indiana became far more popular.
That’s according to Veronica Jalomo, the farm-to-school coordinator of the Northwest Indiana Food Council. In her role, she works with schools to lead farm-to-school initiatives and bring more nutritious local produce to schools. But with federal cuts to certain United States Department of Agriculture programs, the initiatives are at risk.
In 2023, the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program provided Indiana with over $4.4 million to buy local and regional food for school meals. This year, schools may have to start buying less locally.
MCCSC did not respond to a request for comment. At least one farm in Southern Indiana confirmed with the IDS they participated in the program and worked with MCCSC, Richland Bean Blossom Schools and Southeast Dubois Schools.
Jalomo said she started seeing an increase in lunch lines and less waste in the trash cans after the local food program was implemented in schools.
“More students were eating the food. It looked different. The taste is better,” Jalomo said. “It’s more nutritious, what they’re getting at lunch.”
But in March, the USDA ended the LFS program and the Local Food Purchase Assistance program, which helped state and tribal governments purchase food to supply food banks and feeding programs.
Indiana had expected $14.7 million this year for local food for schools, which farmers had already started preparing for, according to NWI Food Council co-executive director Anne Massie.
Massie said the farms the council brought into the program were small, so to be able to supply schools, they had to buy equipment and open new plots of land. She said Perkins Good Earth Farm, a family farm in DeMotte, Indiana, took off because of the program.
“They invested in a new well, which is about a $20,000 investment on a farm,” Massie. “They also installed a new wash pack shed to have more space to wash all the produce and took out a loan to cover it. And now that market disappeared overnight.”
She said many farms had already put seeds in the ground for the 2025-26 school year — leeks, cabbage and tomatoes are supposed to start the growing process in February and March. One farmer, Massie said, had to cancel an order of seed potatoes he had bought for tens of thousands of dollars due to the cancelations.
The farmer used to harvest his potatoes by hand, and the LFS had allowed him to scale up and buy a potato harvester.
“Our farmers that really leaned into the opportunity, invested in their businesses,” Massie said, “are kind of left holding the bag.”
Massie said the council is working with farmers to try to supply more to farmers markets, other nutrition programs and Community Supported Agriculture, like a farm membership for the community to pick up local produce.
But the options farmers have, she said, are often limited to their region.
“Our farmers are not exporters,” Massie said. “And even then, a lot of the larger farmers are dealing with tariffs now too. So, it really is pretty bleak in terms of what options our farmers have.”
She said NWI Food Council is helping farms find low-interest loans and remain stable until there’s more certainty in markets.
Food service directors in the northwest part of the state, according to Jalomo, will attend a three-day workshop over the summer to create ten recipes that incorporate local produce. While the food purchased for singular recipes wouldn’t completely be the same as the large purchases, Jalomo said it could still make an impact and allow schools to serve more nutritious foods in their cafeterias.
In Indiana, schools face the additional challenge of Senate Enrolled Act 1, which would lower property taxes but cost school districts $744 million in the next three years. Monroe County Community School Corporation alone could lose $17 million in that time frame.
In a meeting on Tuesday, the corporation’s Superintendent Markay Winston said MCCSC would have to cut staff due to the law.
Students in the MCCSC had an asynchronous learning day April 14 so teachers could protest the passing of the bill at the Statehouse. The bill was signed into law the next day.
“What we’re hearing from school food service directors, too, is that they may have to just operate at a negative,” Massie said. “At the end of the day, they have to feed the kids that come into the school.”
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