Locally Caught Monkfish A Hit At Monomoy Schools: Chatham Harvesters Expand Program Begun At Nauset

CHATHAM – It isn’t always easy to get kids to try new foods. But parents might take a page from the Chatham Harvesters Cooperative playbook.

 A year ago, the Harvesters had success in bringing locally caught seafood to the cafeterias of schools in the Nauset Regional School District. Last month, it was the Monomoy Regional School District’s turn, and co-founder and general manager Brett Tolley said they took the same approach as they did with Nauset last May, sending fishermen into the schools to talk with kids about commercial fishing and tell them all about the abundant and sustainably caught monkfish that was going to be on the menu.

 “That helped them get excited,” he said.

 It worked. Reaction to the fish was “overwhelmingly positive,” Tolley said. At the Monomoy Regional Middle School, the dish was so popular with fifth and sixth graders that many asked for seconds.

 “By the time the seventh graders were ready to eat, it was all gone,” Tolley said.

 Monomoy Food Service Director Michael Noks found out about the Harvester’s success in Nauset from Susan Murray, that district’s food service director. He liked the idea and saw it as a way to connect kids with healthy, local food.

 “It’s a good practice for the kids to know where their food comes from,” he said.

 But even before Noks could reach out to the Harvesters, Tolley had contacted him. May is the month the Massachusetts Farm to School initiative focuses on fish, so it made sense to continue the cooperative’s school outreach program last month. Monomoy seemed a natural choice as the next school to add local fish to its menu.

 While he liked the idea of serving kids local fish, Noks said previous attempts to add fish to the menu hadn’t been popular. But those were processed fish sticks, and they didn’t have the benefit of having the kids actually meet the fishermen who’d harvested their lunch. A number of students from fishing families also helped talk up the monkfish among their peers, he said.

But the oven-baked monkfish with a Ritz Cracker and herb crust ended up appealing to the students. “The kids were very positive,” Noks said. He estimated that 90 percent of the students who tried the monkfish enjoyed the lunch.

The fish didn’t seem to be as popular at Monomoy High, he said. One reason may have been that scheduling did not allow fishermen to meet with students beforehand.

Although the local fish is more expensive, Noks said his budget can absorb the difference and he hopes to work locally caught fish into the menu at least once a month. Monomoy’s cafeterias also use poultry from a Truro farm and try to use as much local produce as possible, he said. This helps teach kids that local food is more healthy and tastes better than processed food. 

Kids, in turn, can pass that lesson on to parents, noted Tolley. Most of the fish served in local restaurants and available in stores is not local, but the imported cod, haddock and salmon are what people are used to and know how to prepare. Learning about locally caught fish like monkfish and skate, and how to cook them (the Harvesters have dozens of recipes on their website), will help broaden the market for the co-op and other local fishermen.

“Our hope is that it’s a call to adults in our community to take the lead to embrace locally abundant fish,” he said.

Schools can qualify for state grants to help underwrite the cost of serving local food in their cafeterias, Tolley said, which creates a “win-win” situation. Students get more healthy, better-tasting food, local farms and other providers, like the Harvesters, are supported and the carbon footprint of the food served by schools is reduced.

The Harvesters hope to get their locally caught and sustainable fish into other Cape schools, Tolley said. 

“We’d like to get into every school system on the Cape,” he said.