AUBURN — The Auburn School Department has set the dates for the first day of school, Superintendent Susan Dorris announced at Wednesday’s School Committee meeting.

“We have had various versions of the school calendar posted online, so I want to clarify the first days of school,” Dorris said Wednesday. “For our students in kindergarten through ninth grade, the first day of school will be Wednesday, Aug. 28.”

“Just a note that our ninth graders will start ahead of our students in grades 10-12 because the high school will be running their traditional freshman orientation day,” Dorris said. “Students in grades 10-12 will start on Thursday, Aug. 29.”

Preschoolers will not start school until after Labor Day, Dorris said. “Our preschool students traditionally start the Tuesday after Labor Day, so the first day of school for our preschool students will be Tuesday, Sept. 3.”

School Nutrition Director Chris Piercey was also at the meeting to give an update on the regional food processing hub that is in the works.

In June, Auburn area schools were selected to receive $623,970 as part of a federal grant to establish a food processing hub within the combined school districts of Auburn, Lewiston and Lisbon. The goal is to have more Maine-grown ingredients in school meals and cut costs by self-sufficient processing in schools.

The district plans to use even more locally-grown ingredients in school meals next year, Piercey said.

“Cucumbers, tomatoes, apples; we source from Greenwood apples, if you think of Greenwood Orchards, they’re our main supplier. Watermelon, broccoli, potatoes; we really got into potatoes this year. Blueberries, cheese curds (from) Pineland Farms. Turnips, beets, we even managed to do winter squash, brussels sprouts,” Piercey said, listing some of the items that were used in the school meals last year.

“We did lobster this year. It was cool. That was different. The kids were excited. So, that’s just a rough breakdown of the money that we spent, where it had gone,” Piercey noted. “This is all local, into the state of Maine.”

The new equipment will make processing easier. “The equipment is the most exciting part. That will enable us to do more,” Piercey said. “Large vegetable peelers, washers. We’ve traveled to a couple central kitchens that have equipment like this, to get their feedback. Vegetable cutters, apple peelers, cryo rack for long-term storage, a blast chiller, handheld squash peelers.”

Piercey gave an example to highlight how processing will help them cut costs.

“We already do apples, but we do whole apples. We spend a lot of money on apples that come presliced in a cute little bag that the kids like, that really works well on the salad bars we have. We’re exploring opportunities to slice it ourselves and then see if it can keep where it doesn’t brown so quick. We do like to experiment to see what we can do,” he said.

The district is looking to hire a project manager to follow it through with the local partners. A role distribution between the three school departments is also possible, Piercey said. “In Auburn, we would take on a lot of the potato, vegetable stuff. Lisbon’s focusing on the apple, if you will, and then Lewiston more of the winter squash.”

“We get a third back on anything that we buy locally, up to a $5,500 cap. That’s called the Local Food Fund. It’s something that the State of Maine offers. It’s been tough and I certainly hope that that cap will be increased or make it more enrollment based, just offer it to everybody,” Piercey said. “The state is always amazed by the amount of school districts that don’t take advantage of it. So, there’s a lot of money that could be reallocated.”