Twenty-five schools statewide will be able to buy Washington-grown fruits and vegetables as snacks this year, thanks to new legislation.

The Local Farms-Healthy Kids bill passed nearly unanimously in Olympia earlier this year aims to get nutritious food to schoolchildren and provide economic opportunities to state farmers.

But one of the most important parts of the plan -- hiring two staff people to connect schools with farms and do outreach that busy school nutrition directors can't -- was delayed because of the state government hiring freeze imposed three weeks ago by Gov. Chris Gregoire.

"That's a really critical piece," said Eric Boutin, director of child nutrition services for the Auburn School District, who visits farmers markets on his own time searching for local growers to supply the district with organic lettuce or potatoes.

Those relationships are rare because of tight budgets, the volume of food that school-lunch programs need and the logistics of delivering to dozens of sites.

"You can't expect food nutrition directors to be filling up their trunk with produce," he said. "There really could be a positive connection between farms and schools if we can have someone to fill the gaps."

The hiring process for the two farm-to-school positions was under way when Gregoire instituted the freeze, said Jason Kelly, a spokesman for the state Agriculture Department.

In early August, she directed state agencies to cut fuel, hiring and travel costs to save $90 million and make up for an unexpected revenue drop.

The positions do not fall under emergency exemptions for certain public health, public safety or economic development jobs. But the agency has appealed to the state Department of Personnel to move forward with the hires, Kelly said.

"They will make a meaningful contribution to a more nutritious diet for Washington school kids and economic opportunity for the state's fruit and vegetable growers," he said.

Children in some schools with a high percentage of low-income students -- including Van Asselt Elementary in Southeast Seattle -- still will benefit this year from a $600,000 Local Farms-Healthy Kids grant to offer Washington-grown produce in schools.

"They're going to see a difference right away in what they can do and provide for their kids," said Mo McBroom, policy director for the Washington Environmental Council, which supported the legislation.

Combined with a federal program that got a boost from a national farm bill passed earlier this year, that will more than double the number of statewide schools receiving extra money to serve apples or carrots or cucumbers as snacks. In Seattle, Concord Elementary will receive the federal grant this year.

"Oddly enough to those of us that are pretty used to buying fruits and vegetables, things like snap peas or jicama don't sound so unusual, but for many kids, it's the first time they've tasted a mango or even a radish," said Anita Finch, director of nutrition services for Seattle Public Schools.

The state-funded grant offers enough money -- $57 per student -- to allow the district to buy local food if it can find suppliers.

Without that funding, tight budgets can make it tough to work with small-scale growers, and the prices of staples such as eggs, milk and grains have skyrocketed in the past year. That led the Seattle School Board to raise breakfast and lunch prices by 50 cents for the upcoming year.

"Just like parents struggling at home, we're having to evaluate all of our purchases," Finch said. "This won't cover (the increases) entirely, but it will help."

The state grant -- which can be used only to buy food grown in Washington -- could also offer a more manageable way for schools to work with local growers who can't supply enough food for 19,000 lunches.

"I assumed that once this bill passed, we'd have some folks calling us, but no one has," said Wendy Weyer, dietician for Seattle Public Schools. "So we're back to where we were before -- trying to broker our own relationships."

At the 30-student Onion Creek School, tucked in the rugged hills north of Colville, the state grant will buy apples, pears and cherries grown in nearby Columbia River orchards.

Because food distributors don't deliver to the tiny community, staff members and parents routinely pick up lunch supplies at local groceries or Costco runs, said Principal Edwina Hargrave.

"This will allow kids to have those fresh fruits and vegetables at different times throughout the day," she said. "That way the kids who are high-poverty won't go home hungry."

Boutin in Auburn, whose district also will receive a state snack grant, plans to offer extra fruits or vegetables at Gildo Rey Elementary every day, along with nutrition information and a story about where the produce is grown.

Boutin is also pushing to integrate local food districtwide -- buying organic lettuce from one local farm and contracting with another to grow potatoes. In those cases, he was able to strike a deal that was no more expensive than one with large-scale distributors.

But it does require extra district staff time to wash produce and make deliveries that small farmers can't afford to individual cafeterias.

"The grant program lets us do some wonderful things at one school," he said. "But we're trying to find things that are sustainable for all schools, not just some."