Oregon helps schools buy food from local businesses

(FEBRUARY 15, 2024) When she was a child, Lola Milholland attended Richmond Elementary school in Portland. In 2019, she returned to see its first yakisoba day. Every school served wheat noodles with roasted vegetables. But the noodles were special. They were from her recipe.

Milholland wanted to share her Japanese American culture. In 2016, she had started a noodle business called Umi Organic. The business worked with the school to provide the fresh noodles.

But it wasn't easy. The noodles needed to follow government rules about nutrition. The school cooks also needed to be able to make a lot of noodles -- enough for more than 16,000 students. And, of course, they needed to taste good.

Milholland worked with a local flour mill. She made a noodle that tasted good. Cooks could make a lot of them easily using their ovens.

The state of Oregon helped, too. The state provided money to schools to buy local food.  In 2023, the state gave more than $10 million to this special program. 

The school pays Milholland, and then she uses the money to buy local products, like flour from Camas Country Mill in Eugene.

Milholland is happy to have a good business. She is happy to buy local products. She is happy that students get good food in school. Most of all, she is happy to share her culture with the community.