RUMFORD — The River Valley Healthy Communities Coalition heard a presentation from University of Maine at Farmington student and Boondocks Buying Club coordinator Gabe Perkins on Thursday.

The gathering at the Rumford Library was their final community network meeting until September.

Perkins spoke about his duties as coordinator of the Boondocks Buying Club, as well as the opportunity for the River Valley Healthy Communities Coalition to become involved with a survey that gauges local food buying habits of residents.

“The Local Food Connection created a survey that takes about 10 to 15 minutes to complete,” Perkins said. “With it, they’re trying to understand whether local foods come into play in the grocery store, at restaurants or in schools.”

He said 120 people responded to the survey and he shared some of the information  received.

“Ninety percent of the people who took the survey found that nutrition was the most important factor when purchasing food, even above price,” Perkins said. “Eighty-percent of people said they wished local foods could more often be found in schools. Schools are one of those institutional juggernauts that are hard to get at, sometimes.

“The results made us realize that people do care about local foods,” Perkins said. “It made us start thinking about how we could get more local foods into schools, restaurants and grocery stores.”

In order to continue research on the topic, Perkins said the Local Food Connection was interested in working with the RVHCC and other local businesses to do a local food survey in the River Valley region.

“It’d be helpful for us to expand this idea into the River Valley and replicate the survey, to a point,” Perkins said. “We could have the surveys out in the summer, at the town offices, the libraries and local businesses. We think it would be fascinating to see what different parts of the county think about local foods.”

mdaigle@sunjournal.com

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