Grown right here: Chef cooks 20,000 meals at Jeux de L'Acadie

Cooking four days' worth of meals for1,400 hungry students is not an easy task.

But this year, chef Pat Mills took it even further, preparing 60 per cent of the 20,000 meals served at the Jeux de L'Acadiea major francophonesports and culture event that just wrapped upin Fredericton from food grown in the province.

Mills said the idea isn't novel. He already cooks with local and provincially-sourced produceatCarrefour Beausoleil,thefrancophoneschool inMiramichiwhere he works as a chef.

It's all part of a growing movement in the province that seeks a return to more local food, and to help New Brunswick farmers, he said.

"And we're not talking about multi-national companies. We're going with small companies, small farms, and buying their product," he said.

"So it's keeping them employed, and making them employ more people. This is getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger."

Short growing season

Mills said he produced about 20 per cent of the meals served at the sporting event himself, cooking and freezing them ahead of time at his kitchen inMiramichi.

The tomato sauce he used at his pasta bar, for example,was made from fruit he bought at a local farm, while the salad came from a local greenhouse, he said.

Other mealswere prepped bylocal food producers, such asLocavoreFoods, which owns two restaurants in Saint John and Fredericton.

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Mills said cooking with local produce takes a lot of planning.

The window forproducing and purchasing food grownin New Brunswick islimited due to the province's short growing season. He oftenpurchases produce before the farmers plant it, and thenvacuumseals and freezes it to make it last, he said.

"If [the farms]can plant, say an acre, I go in and buy the acre and it's sold before they even plant it," he said, adding that he just purchased 15,000 pounds of tomatoes from a farm inAcadieville.

"We can negotiate the price before it's even in the ground. So it's comforting for the farmer."

Growing movement

MarcAllain, executive director ofCarrefour Beausoleil, first started the local food movement in schools at cole Sainte-Anne in Fredericton in 2013 before moving on to Miramichi.

He said CarrefourBeausoleilhas served made-in-New Brunswick food for about a year now, feeding 279 children.

But next year, it will be the one hosting the Jeux de L'Acadie, he said.

So this year's games were also an opportunity to test-drive the local food production for the athletes, with the goal of surpassing the 60 per cent hurdle at the 2018 games andpreparing meals from85 to 90 per cent of New Brunswick produce, he said.

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"As much as it's humanely possible to feed these kids from NB products next year, we will set a bar that will never be passed again," he said.

Allain added that the network of businesses and organizations involved in the movement continues to grow, now including groups such as the National Farmers Union, the Agricultural Alliance, Real Local Harvest and C'est D'Ici, a cafeteria network.

"It's going to be extremely interesting times in terms of local food," he said.

"And not just in institutions. We're starting in schools, but this is not a school-bound project. This is about getting the product to the market that is interested. No matter where that market is."