Steadfast Farms Visits Hartford Public Schools with Connecticut Farm-to-School Partners

On Tuesday, April 28, 2026, Steadfast Farms had the opportunity to step away from the farm and into one of the most important food service environments in Connecticut: the school cafeteria.

As part of a 10-month Farm to Cafeteria Sales Training cohort, Aaron McCool, Director of Operations and Sales, and Jared McCool, CEO and Founder of Steadfast Farms, joined other Connecticut farms for a field trip to Hartford Public Schools. The visit was connected by Shannon G. Raider, Farm Liaison / Local Supply Chain Support, and gave our team a closer look at what it takes to serve nutritious meals across a large public school district.

Hartford Public Schools serves 43 locations and approximately 18,000 students. Seeing that work up close was both impressive and humbling.

During the visit, our group toured the Hartford Public Schools food service office, met members of the Food & Child Nutrition Services team, walked through the service kitchen during lunch rollout, and saw how food is distributed from the main site to schools across the district.

We were welcomed by the Hartford team, including Elaine Gaglioti, MS, Senior Director of Food & Child Nutrition Services, and Christopher Scoppetta, RDN, Director of Food & Child Nutrition Services. Their team gave us a real look at the planning, coordination, and care that goes into feeding students every school day.

We also had the chance to sit down and share a school lunch together. For us, that moment mattered. It is one thing to talk about farm-to-school partnerships in a meeting. It is another to sit at the table, eat the meal, and see the full system behind it.

Above: Steadfast Farms and Connecticut farm partners shared school lunch during the Hartford Public Schools field trip.

One of the biggest takeaways from the day was scale.

Feeding 18,000 students across 43 locations requires more than good food. It takes timing, consistency, planning, nutrition compliance, reliable distribution, and products that truly work for each school kitchen.

For Steadfast Farms, the visit helped us better understand the difference between what farms may be ready to produce and what school districts actually need. Some districts may need ready-to-heat items. Others may have the staff, equipment, and workflow for ready-to-cook products. Packaging, portioning, delivery schedules, and preparation time all matter.

That insight is incredibly valuable as we continue building relationships with school food service directors across Connecticut.

At Steadfast Farms, our mission has always been about more than raising poultry. We believe in creating food that sustains families, enriches communities, and supports ethical farming for future generations.

Serving schools fits directly into that mission.

School meals reach children, families, and communities every day. When local farms and school districts work together, students gain access to food raised closer to home, schools build stronger local supply chains, and Connecticut agriculture becomes more connected to the communities it serves.

Steadfast Farms already sells to two school districts, and we are working toward building contracts with Hartford Public Schools and other school districts over the next 12 months. This field trip was an important step in understanding how we can show up as a reliable, practical, and mission-aligned partner.

During the visit and through the Farm to Cafeteria Sales Training cohort, we have been thinking carefully about how Connecticut Veteran Grown poultry can support school meal programs.

Chicken is a natural starting point, but the conversation also includes value-added items that could make local poultry easier for schools to use. Products like breakfast burritos and poultry meat pies are examples of the kinds of meal solutions that may help bridge the gap between local farm production and the daily needs of school kitchens.

These conversations are helping us learn what matters most to school food service teams: dependable supply, clear communication, food safety, consistent packaging, and products that fit within real cafeteria workflows.

Since the field trip, Steadfast Farms also joined a follow-up Teams meeting with six additional food service directors from school districts around the state. That conversation continued the momentum and helped us better understand how different districts approach local purchasing, menu planning, and product needs.

What stood out most from our Hartford visit was the dedication of the people behind school meals.

Food service teams do a tremendous amount of work that many people never see. They are planning menus, meeting nutrition requirements, coordinating deliveries, preparing meals, solving daily challenges, and making sure students are fed.

For farmers, it is easy to focus on what happens in the field, on the farm, or in the processing facility. This visit reminded us that the next step in the food chain is just as complex and just as important.

“Seeing the Hartford Public Schools food service operation in action gave us a much deeper appreciation for what it takes to feed students every day,” the Steadfast Farms team reflected. “For us, this is about more than selling poultry. It is about learning how we can show up as a dependable local partner for schools, support Connecticut agriculture, and help get nutritious, locally raised food onto more student trays.”

The Farm to Cafeteria Sales Training cohort is helping farms like ours better understand how to serve K–12 school districts.

The program focuses on building lasting sales relationships between farmers and school buyers. For Steadfast Farms, that means learning directly from school food service professionals, understanding district needs, and developing products that make sense for real school meal programs.

This kind of relationship-building is essential. Strong farm-to-school partnerships do not happen by accident. They are built through listening, follow-through, shared goals, and a willingness to adapt.

We left Hartford encouraged, informed, and grateful.

Thank you to Shannon G. Raider for helping connect this opportunity, to Hartford Public Schools Food & Child Nutrition Services for welcoming us, and to the other Connecticut farms who joined the visit. Days like this help strengthen the bridge between local agriculture and school food service.

Steadfast Farms is excited to continue this work as we grow our school partnerships across Connecticut. We are proud to be part of a larger movement that supports local farms, strengthens regional food systems, and helps bring Connecticut-grown food to more students.

Want to follow along as we continue building farm-to-school partnerships? Join our newsletter for updates from the farm, wholesale news, poultry processing resources, and stories from our work across Connecticut.

Steadfast Farms is growing the list of school districts sourcing Connecticut Veteran Grown poultry. If your school district is interested in local poultry, value-added meal options, or wholesale availability, please visit our Wholesale page or email orders@steadfastfarms.com to start a conversation.