School produce fee stirs critics
Friday, August 31st, 2007
By Chris Fitzsimon
Private vendor charges to deliver
Jim Nesbitt, Staff Writer RALEIGH - State agriculture officials and two powerful North Carolina congressmen are calling for lower price markups on North Carolina-grown fruit and vegetables purchased under a popular federal farm-to-school program that provides fresh produce for student lunches.
Officials say they’ll ask for a price break from U.S. Department of Defense purchasing agents and the private produce company that was awarded a $37.6 million contract to distribute fruits and vegetables to North Carolina military bases and schools participating in the lunch program.
At issue is a $4.30-a-case delivery fee charged by the defense agency’s private contractor, Foster-Caviness Foodservices of Colfax. State agriculture officials say the fee significantly increases the cost of homegrown produce to school districts across the state, including Wake County, that participate in the farm-to-school program and have their purchases delivered by state trucks.
That fee is in addition to a 5.9 percent charge tacked on to each case by defense agency purchasing agents that will be reduced to 4.6 percent in October.
"I’m still not satisfied with the decision made by the Defense Department," said U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, a Farmville Republican. "I feel that this program is too valuable. To increase this delivery cost — would that have happened if DoD had not decided to hire a private vendor?"
The decade-old farm-to-school program relies on the Defense Department because of its immense purchasing power.
Jones, along with U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge, a farmer and Lillington Democrat who is a member of the House Agriculture Committee, have been sharply critical of the impact of the produce purchases on the decade-old farm-to-school program. Agriculture officials say the program sells North Carolina produce to about 60 school districts in the state. (more…)
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