Family Farmed.org is partnering with Chartwells-Thompson Hospitality, the major food service provider for the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), to ask Illinois farmers to contract for $500,000 of fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables. This will be in addition to the $1.8 million in local farm products they purchased last year from growers in Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois. This will take CPS regional procurement of fruits and vegetables to $2.3 million for the 2010-11 school year. “The commitment of Chartwells and CPS to purchase fresh and frozen local food is a model for the nation,” said Jim Slama, president of FamilyFarmed.org. “This will continue to support regional family farmers, provide significant levels of economic development in rural communities as well as put healthy food on the plates of Chicago school children.” In order to reduce pesticide residues, the RFI includes a preference for farms that use Integrated Pest Management Techniques and for produce grown without organophosphate pesticides.