A food supplier to the Chicago Public Schools is looking for a few good growers in Illinois.

Chartwells-Thompson Hospitality, which provides food to hundreds of Chicago's elementary schools and high schools, has partnered with the Family Farmed organization to boost the number of local fruit and vegetable growers it does business with.

Chartwells-Thomopson bought $1.8 million of local or regional farm products last year for the school food programs. But many of the produce they purchased have been fruit from Michigan and vegetables from Wisconsin. They want more stuff to come from Illinois.

"We're very much committed to purchasing locally-grown fruits and vegetables and supporting the local food system," said Jean Saunders, director of marketing at Chartwells-Thompson. "It's important for the food processors and growers to understand there is a robust school market for locally grown food," she said.

Chartwells-Thompson provides food service management services to 481 of the 675 public schools in Chicago. That includes the regular and year-round schools and summer school programs. The company has been including locally-grown fruits and vegetables in the schools since 2007.

The goal is to increase the company's purchase of local fruits and vegetables to $2.3 million for the coming school year.

On Thursday, a Request for Information was issued which details what and how much produce the company is interested in buying and when it needs it. Among its needs: grapes, watermelons, beans and lettuce, among much more – both fresh and frozen produce.

"We're really excited about this increased level of commitment from such a major buyer of food. We're also excited that fresh, local food is going to our school children," said Jim Slama, executive director of Oak Park-based Family Farmed.

The organization works to build local food systems.

He pointed out that the request for information is just that: a request for more information from Illinois growers.

"We're dipping our toes in the water," he said, to get a sense of where the farmers are, what they're growing, what they can and can't supply. "We're trying to get the word out to larger growers in the state that there's an opportunity here," he said.

On Thursday the group also issued a report, "Ready to Grow: A plan for increasing Illinois fruit and vegetable production" which outlined some opportunities and challenges to growing the specialty crop industry in Illinois. The report surveyed 14 buyers in the state, from restaurants like Chipotle to stores like Whole Foods, and found that their demand for Illinois-grown fruits and vegetables surpasses available supply, prompting the companies to buy out of state. If they could, the 14 businesses would

buy over $23 million worth of Illinois-grown produce on an annual basis, stated the report, which was prepared by Family Farmed with funding from the Illinois Department of Agriculture.

"That tells me the opportunity here is off the charts," Slama said.

Adam DeGroot of DeGroot Vegetable Farms in St. Anne near Kankakee supplied russet potatoes to Chartwells-Thompson last year.

"They're a great customer and we plan on supplying more items to them. It's worked out really well," DeGroot said.

DeGroot said he and his relatives who operate the farm, which grows grains as well as vegetables like cabbages, peppers and cucumbers for wholesale markets in the Chicago area, are now considering growing broccoli in response to the possibility of selling it to Chartwells-Thompson.

The report also looked at some of the barriers to building specialty crop production in the state and makes some recommendations on how to change that. One suggestion is to consider developing regional packing houses where produce could be packed, cooled, graded and sold.

"The price for processed vegetables is pretty low," Slama said. But if growers have access to a packing house that could allow them to prolong the products' freshness there is greater potential for farmers to see bigger profits, he said.

Chartwells-Thompson does have specific requirements for growers who supply food to them, such as post-harvest handling and insurance, Slama pointed out.

"These are important requirements and the grower is going to have to prove to be able to meet those needs," Slama said.

A copy of the Request for Information is available at the Family Farmed website, http://www.familyfarmed.org.

Interested growers should submit information by Aug. 16.

"Once we get the information our plan is to begin purchasing in September," Saunders said.

Chartwell-Thompson will pay the prevailing market price for the fruits and vegetables.