A small state program that supporters call "wildly successful" and has helped Alaska schools win grants to grow their own crops and purchase food from local farmers probably won't survive the Legislature's budget ax.
But Alaska Farm to School -- on track to lose all its state funding as lawmakers are making cuts to reduce a $3.5-billion budget hole -- just might live on in diminished form.
State managers say they'll try to win federal funds to pay for the program's two positions, temporarily keeping it alive for perhaps another year or longer.
Supporters are hopeful. With an annual budget of $180,000, the effort has sparked something of a surge in educational agriculture in Alaska, with school greenhouses and gardens growing from 103 to 146 the last two years, according to the program's census.
By offering small grants as seed money and expertise to attract larger grants from other agencies, Alaska Farm to Schools, launched in 2010, has helped bring about unique efforts in Alaska communities, according to supporters. Those include a commercial-sized greenhouse at a school in Tok, a hydroponic farm in a refrigerator van that can be shipped to rural communities, and a Thorne Bay school greenhouse that produces veggies sold at local businesses, supporters say.
Advocates -- and there are many -- say the program has led to new teaching opportunities, put fresh veggies in remote school cafeterias, and provided an economic boost for student groups and farmers. With Alaska importing most of its food from the Lower 48, they say, it has also helped the state take steps to become more "food secure" by teaching students about local alternatives.
"They have done fabulous work," said Anupama Joshi, head of the National Farm to School Network that's trying to expand the nation's growing farm-to-school movement.
Joshi said the Alaska program set an example for other states by pioneering the use of mini-grants -- $3,000 or less -- to generate other funds.
Despite the widespread support, it's uncertain whether Alaska Farm to School will survive. Alaska Department of Natural Resource officials say they're pretty certain they can get federal funding for at least one position. But they caution there's no guarantee.
Letting the program disappear would be a big mistake, said Jason Hoke, executive director of the Copper Valley Development Association.
"If we learned anything from the 1980s, it's that we should be diversifying our economy," he said.
Hoke said Alaska Farm to School helped the Glennallen-based association on its quest to develop a high-tech, hydroponic growing operation inside a 40-foot refrigerator van heated with wood.
Experts with renewable energy company Chena Power created the system. Costing about $50,000, it's a prototype for other units that can be developed and shipped to rural Alaska to provide vegetables year-round.
Students have used it in Glennallen to sell their harvest at the school, stores and restaurants under the Alaska Grown label, Hoke said.
"I understand the hard decisions the Legislature and the governor have to make right now," Hoke said. "I just hope they are not being penny-wise and pound-foolish."
An award-winning culinary class at Chugiak High School has used three $1,000 annual Farm to School grants -- and a $3,000 grant a fourth year -- in part to buy local produce.
That's led to activities such as popular weeklong potato bars and salad bars at the school, and a taste-testing at a Fred Meyer store with students pitting Alaska Grown produce such as carrots, zucchinis and broccoli against veggies shipped in from Outside.
At every activity, students training to become chefs have spread the word about Alaska Grown products, said Chugiak teacher Kathy Vik. People prefer the Alaskan samples because they're sweeter and tastier, students in the class said recently.
"You can tell it hasn't been on the boat for three weeks before it got here," said senior Kait Head, wearing a chef's jacket and preparing jo-jo potato wedges from Alaska potatoes.
If funding from the Farm to School program ends, the culinary class will be able to buy one week's worth of Alaska-grown produce each fall rather than a month's worth, said Vik.
"We use the money for so many activities," she said. "It's been amazing for us."
Rep. Lynn Gattis, who owns a Point MacKenzie cattle and hay farm, said the Farm to School program has been a great success.
But it's just one of several successful state programs that aren't constitutionally mandated that lawmakers have proposed for cuts because of Alaska's massive budget shortfall. Gattis said she understands the pressing need for such reductions.
"It's just a sad situation," she said of the budget crunch.
In their proposed budgets, both the state House and Senate cut funding for the Farm to School program. But at the advice of the DNR, the Senate recently added back the two positions, sans funding, in hopes federal grants could be secured to pay for them, department officials said.
Pete Fellman, chief of staff for Sen. Click Bishop -- who serves as chair of the Senate Finance subcommittee on Natural Resources -- said Bishop strongly supports the program but had to make tough choices this year. He's hopeful the federal money can be found to keep it alive.
"Anything to do with farmers and schools, who can't love it?" Fellman said.
Franci Havemeister, director of the Agriculture Division, said the state already has some federal funding it plans to use for half of one position, currently occupied by program coordinator Johanna Herron.
Havemeister, who called the program "wildly successful," said she hopes to secure the rest of the funding through the federal Farm to School program to keep at least the coordinator position alive for a year or more, and possibly both positions.
Herron, the program coordinator, said a federally funded program could reduce opportunities for attracting larger grants -- it's easier to get matches when state money is also on the table. But she said she'd do her best if the program survives.
Alaska's biggest natural resource is its land, she said. The state should develop it to address one of its biggest problems: a lack of food security.
"We'll do all we can," she said.