Oregon Public Broadcasting

A foray into serving thousands of local lunches to Oregon school children started Tuesday at a Portland elementary school.

The Kaiser Permanente Community Fund has given nearly $300,000 to provide local food for school lunches.

It’s a pilot project that advocates hope will spread across the state, with a goal of $22 million in state funding.

Salem-area state representative, Brian Clem, supports the program. He says the lunches like the ones being served at Kelly Elementary are worth the money, even during a downturn.

Brian Clem: “The state has to step up and say in lean times, we have the lottery for economic development, supposedly, what’s a better economic development activity than a direct contract with one of Oregon’s farmers? Is it trying to lure an out-of-state company here that might abandon us after the tax cuts run out? Or is it spending it on contracts? That’s going to be my argument during session.”

Portland superintendent Carole Smith says she also supports funding to put more local food on kids’ lunch trays. But she says her first priority will be to maintain current levels of K-12 classroom spending.