GARDINER — As Gardiner Area High School’s cafeteria filled with students for the second lunch period, Tara Marble began her pitch.

Marble, the school health coordinator for Regional School Unit 11, approached a boy in the line for mozzarella sticks, chips and other a la carte items and asked what he planned to have for lunch.

Additional Photos

Gardiner Area High School students line up Wednesday for fresh roasted chicken at the school's cafeteria during the Maine Harvest Lunch. Chicken and apples from local farmers were offered to students.

A chicken patty, he said.

“You know what’s in a chicken patty?” Marble asked. “It’s called ‘mechanically separated chicken.’ “

She gestured to another line. “You know what’s over there?” she asked “Quartered, roasted, free-range chicken. Look at this food! It’s real food!”

Gardiner had its Maine Harvest Lunch on Wednesday, serving up food sourced with the help of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association.

There was chicken from Emma’s Family Farm in Windsor; New England-grown carrots, turnips and squash; and a dessert made with apples from Bailey’s Farm in Whitefield.

The event — which was followed up with an identical meal at Gardiner Regional Middle School on Thursday — was a step in moving RSU 11’s cafeterias toward nutritious meals prepared with fresh, local foods.

That’s a top priority for three people who joined the school district this year: Marble, new Food Service Director Mike Flynn and FoodCorps service member Laura Budde.

“We’re just wondering what steps we can make to improve the food on the plate,” said Flynn, a Gardiner alumnus and certified executive chef who has worked for Hyatt Hotels and Resorts.

On Wednesday, Marble encountered resistance from students set in their ways.

“It’s hard,” she said. “They’re so used to the same thing. They’ll have the same chicken patty every day.”

Her pitch worked, however, on freshman Lily Veregge, who liked the chicken but deemed the squash “nasty” and said that, as a general rule, she doesn’t eat turnips.

“It kind of felt like a home-cooked meal because my mom makes chicken and vegetables,” she said.

Junior Austin Moore was more impressed.

“I thought it was really good, and if it supports our local economy, that’s even better,” he said.

Moore said the usual a-la-carte offerings taste fine, but aren’t healthful.

Tallying sales after the final lunch period, Flynn found that the total number of meals sold was higher on Wednesday than on an average day. The number of people choosing a la carte was 19 percent lower, and the number who bought the daily special was 70 percent higher.

Budde had everyone who ate the harvest lunch fill out a short survey, then drop it into one of four buckets to indicate what they thought.

Most of the slips went into the buckets that said “I liked it” or “It was SO good!”

She, Marble and Flynn will use the feedback to guide them as they work to build relationships with local farms.

“I’ll spend a lot of time this year looking at what we’ve bought in the past to see what we can shift to the locals,” Flynn said.

Students also got to talk to farmers. Marble brought in representatives from a few farms to talk to students both at lunch and the school’s Career Day on Wednesday.

“It’s eye opening to talk to kids,” said Anne Trenholm, whose family owns Wholesome Holmstead farm in Winthrop. “Some of them were amazed that I have a computer and electricity.”

Susan McMillan — 621-5645

smcmillan@mainetoday.com