Somerville schools can't afford to serve the 4,300 students who eat cafeteria meals each day the succulent strawberries that go for $3 per pint at the city's farmers markets. If only, school food staff say. However, the district's cafeterias dish up less expensive Massachusetts-grown fruits and vegetables throughout the year. 

The state legislature passed a bill in 2006 that encouraged public school districts to patronize farms within the Commonwealth when their prices didn't exceed those of competing vendors by more than 10 percent. This school year, the district spent $90,000 on state-grown fruits and vegetables, said Charlotte Stephenson, the nutrition outreach coordinator for the schools. That's up from $5,000 in 2007, said Emily French, who matches schools with farms through the Massachusetts Farm to School Project. 

"They're doing some of the best work in the state when it comes to buying local," said French. 

The district buys locally grown produce whenever it's available and within the budget, said Stephenson, but it doesn't have a goal of how much to serve or know what percent of all produce served is locally-grown. 

The district's locavore bent has been bolstered by the Massachusetts Farm to School Project, which educates students about eating seasonally and locally through signs, cooking classes, school-yard gardens and field trips to farms. The project also sponsors the September corn-shucking event, when students meet before school to remove the husks from thousands of ears of locally-cultivated corn in exchange for getting to eat steamed corn on the cob for lunch. 

In addition, the project matches schools with state farmers who can feed thousands of children. Last school year, some 100 Massachusetts public school districts, including Somerville, purchased some or all of their local foods directly from 95 state farms, according to the project. 

Lanni Orchards, in Lunenberg, Mass., supplies the district with the fruits from its 100 acres of apple trees, as well as peaches, squash, cucumbers, corn, potatoes and parsnips. Watertown's Russo's Market also supplies some produce from farms in central and western regions of the state. 

The district buys more than half of all produce from local farms during the fall, when storage crops like apples, potatoes, cabbage, butternut squash and onions abound, said Lauren Mancini, the assistant director for food service. 

In the summer, the schools serve students in the state-sponsored free lunch program Massachusetts-raised tomatoes, peaches, melons, squash and corn. 

And now that a group of young gardening enthusiasts has built a garden in the high school courtyard, the cafeteria staff will be able to top salads with herbs like basil and cilantro, said Stephenson.