North Coast Seafoods Extends Kelp Partnership Through 2026

Last updated on October 7th, 2024 at 05:13 pm

North Coast Seafoods has renewed its food supplier partnership with Boston Public Schools for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years, focusing on their locally-sourced Maine Kelp products.

Following a successful pilot program, the renewal of the Maine Kelp Program through 2026 deepens the school district’s commitment to providing thousands of students in kindergarten through 12th grade across more than 100 schools with local, sustainable plant-based food options.

For added education and support of this continued partnership, North Coast Seafoods will conduct tastings and demonstrations at schools throughout the district to share the benefits of kelp for the ocean and coastal economy, as well as its nutrition profile.

“As a company with a deeply-anchored legacy of sustainability that calls Boston home, North Coast continuously seeks ways to reduce our environmental impact and support our local economy, striving to play our role as a small part of the solution rather than the problem,” said Andrew Wilkinson, North Coast’s chef director of research and development.

“We are incredibly proud to supply Boston students, faculty, and staff with a delicious, nutrient-dense, local and sustainable product that positively impacts our oceans, communities and environment.”

North Coast partners with Atlantic Sea Farms, a seaweed aquaculture company, to source the ingredients, Sugar Kelp and Skinny Kelp, which are sustainably rope-grown by local fishing families on small scale open ocean farms in the cold waters of New England.

[RELATED: North Coast Seafoods, Atlantic Sea Farms Win Climate Award]

“As we work to increase opportunities in regenerative aquaculture, we’re proud to partner with North Coast Seafoods to expand the market for domestically-farmed kelp,” said Bri Warner, Atlantic Sea Farms CEO.

“We’re thrilled that the Boston Public School system continues to offer this highly nutritious, locally farmed seaweed to students, as it engages young people in their regional food system with a product that supports the health of our oceans and our coastal communities for future generations to come.”

Kelp (multiple species) is also verified by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI) as a Gulf of Maine Responsibly Harvested species.