PAINESVILLE, Mich. — It is a region where snowfall can top 300 inches per season and is likely to fall nine months out of the year. A 91-day growing season challenges farmers to make the most of limited amounts of sunlight.

Growing crops is challenging in the Keweenaw Peninsula but that hasn’t curbed an interest and demand for locally grown foods.

The tiny Adams Township School District, just south of Houghton in the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (U.P.), has embraced a project that introduces healthier foods into the school’s lunch program while collaborating with local farmers to feed the district’s 440 students once each week this fall with food raised within the district.

The “Every Day Healthy, One Day Local” initiative is a collaborative effort among the Adams Township School District, the Keweenaw Community Foundation (KCF), local farmers, parents and students, local chefs and health department food and nutrition experts, funded by a significant grant from KCF.

“We couldn’t do this project without buy-in from a lot of people,” said Tim Keteri, superintendent.

Improved nutrition is the underlying program goal and will be accomplished through classroom education at all grade levels; however, without application, education is mere knowledge. In order to put it into practice, students help prepare a weekly meal using all locally grown food in the school’s kitchen, under the supervision of the district’s two foodservice employees and a chef from Michigan Technological University in Houghton.

The first meal included chicken served with a salad mix of 15 greens, homemade bread and parmesan roasted zucchini. For dessert, a low-sugar cake topped with local strawberries frozen this summer provided a satisfying meal’s end.

Students were impressed with the variety of colors in the salad mix and even enjoyed the roasted zucchini. “It is a little bit more work,” said Jean Stevens, kitchen manager. “A couple of teachers are helping and the kids are really enjoying it.” Grilled burgers using local beef is up next on the menu.

“You can do educational measurements. But the value of the program is eating the food and experiencing the meal,” Keteri said. “We look at a meal and have no idea where it came from. We lose the connection whenever we institutionalize food. The ease of institutional food changes our health. This change is a mindset change.

“Can we do this every day? Absolutely not.” The local meal is more costly, but he believes there is a value to the cost, and the program will be evaluated after a year.

The project stemmed from a 2012 report released by the Western U.P. Health Department stating 25 percent of the county’s children live below the poverty level and that 40 percent of school-aged children were overweight. KCF Director Barb Rose took the report to heart in hopes of implementing long-term change in the health and well-being of those children.

“Our role is to be a catalyst to make important changes in the community,” she explained. “Change happens slowly and we wanted to be cautious in how we approached the process. We are keeping the initiative local and are not involved with Farm to School or other programs.”

As the project took shape during the planning process, two additional benefits emerged: increased awareness of local food producers, and farmers found there is demand for their locally grown products on an institutional level. The district has entered into a long-term agreement with Gagnon Farms, a local potato grower that will now supply all the potatoes for the school.

Because of the area’s diminished growing season, preservation techniques such as freezing and canning are required to keep as many products available throughout the year as possible. Two walk-in freezers are used to preserve local strawberries and raspberries for use during the long winter. Stevens said this is the first year she and her staff have preserved local fruits, and will continue to do so regardless of the program’s future.

The connection from farm to plate will become even clearer to students when the greenhouse and hoop house leg of the project takes shape next spring after the ground thaws. Construction is set to begin on a greenhouse where students will grow 1-2 crops per year that will provide produce for the school’s lunch program. Greenhouse glass is being donated by DA Glass America owner Steve Williams.

As a result of the pilot project, the district also hopes to implement an agriscience program into the curriculum starting in 2015 or 2016.