Webinar Series: Planning for Farm to School Success in 2016
Have you resolved to incorporate more local
food into your school meal program in 2016? You are not alone! Preliminary
results of the 2015 Farm to School Census tell us that more than 1,700 school
districts don’t yet have farm to school programs, but are interested in
starting one.
We’re here to help! We’re hosting a farm to school webinar series titled Planning
for Farm to School Success. Through this 11-part series, we’ll guide you
through the USDA Farm to School Planning Toolkit. Served up in bite-sized 30 minute webinars, we’ll offer
questions to consider and helpful resources to reference when starting or
growing a farm to school program. Guest speakers will join the webinars to
share their hands on farm to school experiences. Our entire series is outlined
below, and you can plan ahead for the series by visiting our Videos and Webinars page.
Intro to Farm to School: Planning and Building a Team: January 14, 1:00 PM EST
How does a farm to school
team function? Learn tips and best practices for creating a farm to school
team, facing struggles and surprises, and building a foundation for a
successful project.
Steve Merinelli, Food Service Director from Milton
Town School District in Vermont, joins us to share his first-hand experiences.
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Setting
Goals and Establishing an Evaluation Baseline: January 28, 2:00 PM EST
How do you know if your
activities are helping local farmers and improving student health? Learn how to
integrate program planning/evaluation tools and techniques that will document
outcomes and show the impacts of farm to school programs.
Finding
and Buying Local Foods:
February 4, 2:00 PM EST
USDA Farm to School local food procurement guru, Christina Conell, breaks down
the how to’s of finding and buying local food. We’ll cover a few procurement
basics and then focus on where the opportunities are to target local products
in the purchasing process. Join to gain insights on how to start making change
in your process, big or small.
Farm
to School Menu Planning: February
18, 2:00 PM EST
Let’s bring local products to life on your school lunch and breakfast menus!
This presentation will take you through the menu planning cycle and show you
the variety of ways to incorporate local products into your school recipes,
salad bars, and cycle menus so they become permanent items in your kitchen
inventory.
Food
Safety:
March 3, 2:00 PM EST
How can we ensure the safety of farm fresh food? We’ll share local food safety
best practices, including identifying safety measures for school gardens and
school salad bars.
Promoting
Your Farm to School Program: March
17, 2:00 PM EDT
You’ve put in so much hard work! Now, how do you promote your farm to school
program to ensure student, school, and community engagement? Hear about
programs that have successfully promoted farm to school programs while managing
a tight budget.
School
Gardening: March
31, 2:00 PM EDT
Hear about the different ways to incorporate school gardens into your farm to
school program as well as hear how schools are successfully procuring school
garden produce for their meal programs.
Curriculum Integration:
April 7, 2:00 PM EDT
Experiential education is an important component of successful farm to school
programs. This webinar will help you plan for your farm to school educational
efforts and brainstorm food, agriculture, and nutrition-related educational
activities with which you can engage students.
Program
Sustainability: April
28, 2:00 PM EDT
Your farm to school project is blooming! But what will happen if funding levels
decrease or community interest lags? With this webinar, plan ahead for these
potential scenarios and learn about program sustainability best practices.
Evaluating
Your Program: May
12, 2:00 PM EDT
We all know that farm to school programs create positive economic impacts for
local and regional farmers and improve the health and well-being of our
nation’s children. But how can we measure these changes to document these
positive impacts? Hear from seasoned farm to school evaluators to learn best
practices for evaluating your farm to school efforts.
Tying it All Together and
Digging In: May 26, 2:00 PM EDT
Join us for a healthy dose of motivation! Deborah Kane, Director of USDA’s
Office of Community Food Systems, will hit the highlights by showing how local
procurement fits into the larger farm to school picture and share several
resources to help you meet your local purchasing goals.
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