Rockdale County Public Schools puts local sweet potatoes on the menu this holiday season

CONYERS, GA-–Rockdale County Public Schools (RCPS) will serve a holiday meal featuring a sweet potato soufflé made with locally-sourced sweet potatoes on Dec. 17. This farm-to-school initiative highlights the district’s dedication to providing fresh, nutritious meals while supporting local agriculture, officials said in a news release.

Officials said 2,000 pounds of local sweet potatoes sourced from La Hacienda Sweets, a Latino-owned, 180-acre vegetable farm based in Lyons, GA, will be used to prepare the dish, which will be served to 15,342 students across 20 RCPS schools. The sweet potatoes will be roasted whole to enhance their natural sweetness, then blended with other ingredients to create the soufflé.

The initiative is made possible in part through support from the Georgia ACRE Collective’s Local Food Incentive Pilot, a program facilitated by The Common Market Southeast and other Georgia-based organizations that aim to support an equitable regional food system. The pilot program has been instrumental in helping RCPS integrate more locally-sourced ingredients into its menus providing students with fresh, high-quality food.

By sourcing locally, RCPS not only provides students with fresher ingredients but also supports Georgia’s agricultural economy.

The recipe for the sweet potato soufflé was first introduced during a training session at RCPS’s pilot schools, C.J. Hicks Elementary and J.H. House Elementary. After receiving overwhelmingly positive feedback from school nutrition staff, Blaine Allen, RCPS School Nutrition Director, decided to serve the dish district-wide for this special occasion.

“We’re so proud to work with the Georgia ACRE Collective to bring local foods to our students,” said Allen. “This program not only enhances the quality of our meals but also strengthens ties between our schools and the local farming community.”

This year’s holiday meal also will feature “celebrity servers,” including principals, teachers, community members, and local officials.

This holiday meal marks the second time this school year that RCPS has served a locally-sourced item district-wide. In October, the district celebrated National School Lunch Week with grass-fed beef burgers from Hunter Cattle of Brooklet, GA.

The district’s commitment to local food is further highlighted by its recent expansion of the Georgia ACRE-supported pilot program to a third school, Peek’s Chapel Elementary

The pilot program also serves Marietta City Schools, and launched with its third district, Atlanta Public Schools, this fall. During the pilot’s first year, 2023-2024, Marietta and RCPS reinvested $40,300 into the Georgia economy, primarily through food purchased from local farms, launched 12 new recipes, and supported 24 Georgia farms and producers.

RCPS’s holiday meal is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec.17, 2024, and will also feature oven-fried chicken, green beans, macaroni and cheese, and more. See below for the sweet potato recipe, developed specially for Rockdale County Public Schools by the local food incentive pilot’s team.

About The Georgia ACRE Collective

The Georgia ACRE Collective works to advance agriculture, community, resilience, and equity through values-based procurement. The Georgia-based initiative centers on garnering purchasing commitments from Atlanta-area anchor institutions, while shifting procurement to producers that share the institutions’ values. The purchasing power of these Atlanta institutions creates economic opportunity for sustainably grown food produced by Black farmers, women farmers, and others historically excluded from wholesale markets. Made possible with the support of The Rockefeller Foundation, the ACRE Collective is a collaboration between The Common Market Southeast, The Conservation Fund’s Working Farms Fund, Georgia Organics,Health Care Without Harm, and the Turner Environmental Law Clinic at Emory University. To learn more about The Georgia ACRE Collective visit them online here.

The sweet potatoes for the districtwide holiday meal comes from La Hacienda Sweets, a Latino-owned, 180-acre vegetable farm based in Lyons,GA.