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A University of Washington research team is inviting Washington state school food service professionals to participate in a 55-minute customer discovery interview via Microsoft Teams in April 2026.
The team is developing a platform to help Local Education Agencies (LEAs) plan menus and procure food that meets nutrition guidelines while staying within budget. Before finalizing the solution, they want to hear directly from the professionals who navigate these challenges every day.
Participants may include food service directors, menu planners, procurement officers, nutrition specialists, and district administrators. All conversations are confidential, and no preparation is required.
Questions? Contact Dr. Kokou Tbah Tighankpa at kokout@uw.edu or Dr. Yanfang Su at yfsu@uw.edu.
Harvest of the Month
Harvest of the Month resource sheets help LEAs feature seasonal, Washington-grown foods. May's Harvest of the Month is snap peas. Each sheet includes fun facts, nutrition highlights, selection and storage tips, recipe ideas, and classroom/cafeteria activities.
Access the snap pea resource sheet on the Farm to School webpage under the "Harvest of the Month" drop-down menu. If you don’t have access to snap peas near you or want to feature another food item, check out past Harvest of the Month resource pages on the OSPI Farm to School webpage under the "Harvest of the Month" drop-down menu. What local item will you feature this month?
For support sourcing Harvest of the Month items, email farmtocnp@k12.wa.us.
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Introducing Harvest of the Season—Order a poster today!
This summer, OSPI is launching Harvest of the Season, a new initiative that adds flexibility and tools to the Harvest of the Month materials. Funded by a USDA Farm to School grant, OSPI created these comprehensive toolkits highlighting 24 Washington-grown and -raised foods for Washington state child nutrition programs. Harvest of the Season includes tips for featuring 24 Washington-grown and -raised foods items in Child Nutrition Programs program meals, with activities for educators, and for kids to bring home to their families.
Toolkits will also include posters highlighting each Harvest of the Season food item. A limited number of posters will be printed and distributed free of charge to Washington Child Nutrition Program sponsors.
To order, complete this survey by May 15. More information and additional opportunities to order materials will be shared in CNS newsletters.
Questions? Email farmtocnp@k12.wa.us.
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Icons Tell the Story: Making Scratch-Made and Local Foods Easy to Spot
Washington LEAs are finding creative ways to help students and families better understand and identify what’s on the menu using icons. These small additions to menus not only communicate menu item attributes, like vegetarian items, local sourcing, or scratch-made items, but they tell a story about the meal program.
Selah School District and Odessa School District use icons on their menus to show families which menu items are made from scratch, locally sourced, and other qualities.
Laurie Ozanich from Selah School District shared:
“At Selah, we wanted a way to show our community the entrees our kitchen made and inform them of specialty menus, from global inspired menus to fresh condiment bars and vegetarian options. We have the ability to tell the story behind the food through our menus, so it was really important to us to use icons. As a meal program overview, it showcases all the items that are made from scratch and helps change the idea of what a school meal is for families that cannot see our servings lines in person. This especially works well for school districts who do not have their own social media pages.”
Laurie shared this tip when using icons: make sure the icons transfer over when converting the menu file to a PDF. Selah uses the “print and save as PDF” function versus the "download as PDF" function so the icons appear in the PDF document.
 Selah School District's menu with icons.
 Odessa School District menu for March.
Farm to School Success
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Curlew School District
Curlew hosted their first Meet Your Farmer Day with RC Farms and Happy Mountain Mushrooms. The meal featured local beef and mushrooms in a stroganoff, homemade rolls with whole wheat ground in the school’s own flour mill, cosmic crisp apples, and a local yogurt dip.
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 Reardan School District
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Columbia Community Creamery visited Reardan School District to teach students about the creamery and how yogurt is made! Reardan School District served a parfait with local vanilla yogurt and made ranch and chipotle ranch dressing from scratch for lunch. |
 Have a Farm to School Success Story? We want to hear!
 Is your school garden blooming with brilliance? Did your cafeteria team whip up something amazing with local ingredients? Maybe your students partnered with a farmer to learn more about local food, tried a new harvest of the month, or planted something spectacular!
If you’ve got a farm to school win – big or small- we're all ears (of corn)!
Share your story with us and help inspire schools across the state.
Send your success story to farmtocnp@k12.wa.us and celebrate the good growing on!
Washington Local Foods
We’re thrilled to share an exciting milestone from this year’s Washington Local Food (WaLF) Preorder Survey!
Washington schools have collectively pre-ordered more than $1.1 million in regionally grown foods for the 2026–2027 school year—a powerful demonstration of our statewide commitment to nourishing students with fresh, local, and high-quality ingredients.
OSPI thanks LEAs participating in WaLF for leading the way. Washington continues to innovate in farm to school, and this year’s WaLF pre-order numbers prove that momentum is growing.
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Keep building pathways from local farms to school cafeterias—one delicious, local meal at a time! |
Farm to School Connection Week
Bringing the Farm to School Connections Week is a virtual, self-paced networking opportunity for Washington food producers and Child Nutrition Program food buyers. During the week of May 18–24, Child Nutrition Program food buyers contact Washington farmers and producers to set up one-on-one meetings at a time convenient to them.
The goal is for buyers and sellers to meet each other, build new relationships, explore potential sales opportunities, and ultimately get more Washington-grown products into Child Nutrition Programs.
How does it work?
Complete the registration form by April 27.
- Registration information will be compiled into a directory and shared with participants.
- Receive a directory of participants and instructions by May 11 from slonim@agr.wa.gov.
- Schedule meetings with participating buyers and sellers during the week of May 18-24. Meetings may take place in person, by phone, or video call.
- Attend the virtual kickoff meeting on May 18 at 1 pm.
- May 18–24: Attend your scheduled meetings and build farm to school connections!
Questions? Contact the following:
Bringing the Farm to School through New Connections is funded by a cooperative agreement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service.
New and Featured Resources
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Find local partners near you: The National Farm to School Network has updated its interactive Partner Network Map. It features 500+ partner organizations sorted by state and organization type, a useful tool for identifying local food and Farm to CACFP connections in Washington and beyond
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Check out the Institute of Child Nutrition (ICN) iLearn platform and the Child Nutrition OnDemand trainings.
With a vast range of topics, there's something for everyone to learn.
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Get out your calculators and review this mealtime memo for April all about culinary math.
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