NORWAY - It's not easy to find enough hamburger patties made from Maine cows to feed 1,500 students.

"It's definitely a challenge," said Martha O'Leary, food service director for SAD 17.

O'Leary also had to find blueberries, corn, lettuce, cucumbers and sweet potatoes from Maine farms. It was part of the district's second-annual Maine Harvest Lunch program that some 200 schools across the state will take part in on Wednesday.

"It's about local foods," said Ken Morse of Healthy Oxford Hills which helps coordinate the lunch with the SAD 17 school district through a curriculum developed by the Gorham and Portland Soil and Water Conservation District. The districts are run by locally elected and appointed volunteers to identify natural-resource problems at the local level and develop solutions.

This year "mini" grants were given out to schools in Cumberland County to support the program and the SAD 17 school district was able to participate through the Harrison Elementary School, which is the only school in the district located in Cumberland County, Morse said.

With the grant, Healthy Oxford Hills took the program curriculum to four elementary schools in the district to talk about the nutritional value of local food and other initiatives taken prior to the lunch.

Kate Goldberg of Healthy Oxford Hills spent Friday at Rowe Elementary School in Norway talking about locally grown food and what it means to this area. Students responded with questions, answers and comments.

"He's 100 or something," said a fifth-grade student when commenting on the health benefits a local apple grower apparently receives from his harvest.

In addition to Rowe Elementary School, Goldberg will present programs at elementary schools in Harrison, Hebron and Otisfield, which have started school and/or community gardens over the past few years.

While this is happening, O'Leary continues to search for local foods which she said are not always easy or cheap to buy.

Delivery is another problem with the lunch, she said. Normally, O'Leary receives two large shipments of food weekly from the school district's vendor. In this case, she must drive to pick up the food.

O'Leary said two nonlocal meals also will be offered during Harvest Lunch, but each year more students buy the locally grown option.

"I think the kids really enjoyed it last year," she said.