Bates College in Lewiston and Colby in Waterville are doing some interesting things these days regarding healthy food for their students.

Earlier this month, Bates received a $2.5 million anonymous donation to increase its purchase of local food for its dining halls. The grant is expected to raise the local food purchases from 22 to 28 percent of the college's food budget.

Products that will be offered include grass-fed beef, spring water from a locally owned company, bread from Maine-grown organic grain (I'm guessing Borealis) and fresh fruits and vegetables grown nearby.

At Colby last Sunday, more than a dozen students brought food purchased at the Common Ground Fair in Unity to a potluck dinner at the college. Thanks to our summer apprentices Sarah Sorenson and Lia D'Hemecourt, who are both Colby students, Michele and I were invited as "real farmers" to chat with the students about local foods.

The students made great choices of food from the vendors at the fair. Much of what they bought was combined into a tasty vegetable soup by program leader Gail Gordon and the students.

They also plied us with questions about life on the farm, how the apprentice program works, how to get into farming, how to farm sustainably and how to plan a crop season. We were happy to have all of those conversations.

Before the dinner, Lia took us to a community garden near the campus, where students in the organic gardening club work the land to provide food for themselves and in a modest way to the college's food service operation.

Nevertheless, these beginning steps overlook the curious misfit between schools and local food, especially vegetable production as we do here.

Without overstating the obvious, the school year and the "farm year" are very disconnected. The school year break happens in June, July and August; the farm year break happens in January and February. That is a little ironic since the original design of the school year probably 150 years ago was to allow kids to work on their parents' farm during the growing season. The summer break is an artifice that serves neither farms nor food production.

When we bring in apprentices in late May and early June, they have missed most of the garden preparation work. When they leave in late August, they miss all the harvest and winter storage experience. They spend a lot of time putting seedlings in the ground and see very little of the fruits of their labor.

If I could dream up an ideal program for students (and teachers) who want to learn about producing healthy food and healthy soils while they're at school it would look something like this:

Starting in March, students would learn how to plan a garden from scratch: seed selection, rotations and succession planting, germinating seeds, growing seedlings, etc.

In March, April and May, students would grow a wide selection of greens (spinach, lettuces, beet greens) under cover for their food service operations.

In June, July, and August, summer production would include crops aimed at late summer-early fall: winter squash, potatoes, tomatoes for canning, Brussels sprouts, leeks, carrots, onions and garlic. Kale, turnips, rutabagas, parsnips, and celeriac are also possibilities.

In September-October, students would harvest those crops for use by campus food service. Storage crops (potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic) would need root cellar space.

In November, the garden would be buttoned down for the winter and regular studies resume. How about school vacation in January and February when energy costs are higher?

Teachers would need as much training and preparation as students, and all could apprentice on local farms. The production gardens could be located on campus or on land leased from local farmers. Grass-fed beef, free-range chickens and pastured pigs could be part of the larger operation.

Part of the learning experience, besides the enjoyment of eating the food, should be the preparation of it, both for small, family-sized groups and for bigger crowds as food service chefs do every day.

Every year, we see a growing interest among young people in learning how to grow their own food. Every apprentice college student we have had since 2004 (12 to date) has been at ground zero in their garden learning curve, yet their capacity to learn and their enthusiasm has been enormous. Yea for that!

Denis Thoet, with his partner Michele Roy, own and manage Long Meadow Farm in West Gardiner, www.longmeadowfarmmai ne.com.