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October 13, 2015 | Special Edition
In today's Wisconsin Farm to School newsletter, you will find:
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Calling all WI Farm to Cafeteria partners – students, teachers, food service professionals, farmers, and community partners!!
We want to showcase all of the amazing farm to cafeteria work in Wisconsin at the 2016 National Farm to Cafeteria Conference, June 2-4, 2016 in Madison, WI, and WE NEED YOUR HELP!
Pull out your camera, tablet, or smart phone and record a short video (2 minutes or less) describing and illustrating the great farm to cafeteria work that you are doing!
Just three steps separate your school from being featured at the National Farm to Cafeteria Conference.
- Film your favorite farmer delivering local squash, school food service staff filling the salad bar with lettuce from the school garden, or students singing about vegetables.
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Interview a farm to school champion or two about how farm to school impacts your school and community. Use the questions below to help get the juices flowing:
- What is WI farm to school?
- Why do you love farm to school?
- How does WI Farm to School impact your school or community?
3. Submit film footage to Beth Hanna at beth@communitygroundworks.org
We hope to see your farm to cafeteria project on the big screen in June!
Questions? Contact Beth Hanna at beth@communitygroundworks.org or 608-240-0409.
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 More than 235 school districts in Wisconsin are engaged in farm to school activities, approximately 40 of these school districts work with the DATCP AmeriCorps Farm to School Program.
Since 2008, the WI Department of Agriculture, Trade, and
Consumer Protection has hosted the AmeriCorps Farm to School Program, made
possible through funding from Serve
Wisconsin and the Corporation for
National and Community Service.
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AmeriCorps Farm to School Goal: The AmeriCorps Farm to School program provides an innovative approach to decreasing childhood obesity by promoting healthy eating habits in students K-12 and increasing access to local foods in schools. |
Program Elements:
• Identifies and
addresses hurdles facing local food procurement in school districts while
building relationships and supporting Wisconsin farmers.
• Provides nutrition
education for students K-12 by developing and implementing curriculum, wellness
plans, school gardens, in-class demonstrations and farm field trips.
Ashland School District: The
school district of Ashland supports over 900 elementary and middle school
students in farm to school programing. The host site sponsors large school
gardens, a tasting orchard, and a school forest area. Nutrition Educator, Chris
Corrigan, has been working hard to procure apples for every student for this
month’s Great Apple Crunch. The event will include a lesson on the importance
of apples to individual health and the regions’ economy, as well as an
appearance by an area orchardist to discuss apple trees. Visit their Instagram page.
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Bayfield School District: Our
Bayfield host site sponsors over 400 students in farm to school activities. Nutrition
Educator Ben Wagner, assists in maintaining a large school garden and high
tunnel system as well as indoor propagation with students.
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School District of Beloit: One of our new host sites, AmeriCorps Members Liz White and Maddy Blain will serve Beloit and surrounding areas with nutrition education, garden maintenance in their many school gardens, and growing the farm to school program through outreach and special events. They are currently hosting a farm to school poster contest with all of their elementary students, which will eventually become a school calendar. |
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CESA Purchasing: Through
our host site CESA Purchasing AmeriCorps Members Michelle Escamilla and Joe
Klein will serve over 60 school districts in procurement assistance, as well as
offers nutrition education for the Jefferson County area schools. They will
also be working to promote the Chop!
Chop! Series with food service directors and staff.
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Crawford Co. UW
Extension: Our host site in Prairie du Chien sponsors nutrition education
for all local area schools. Member Haley Mahr has procured local apples for
1,000 students at 6 area schools for the Great Apple Crunch.
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Goodwill Industries-
Goodwill Grows: AmeriCorps
Members, Alissa Lick and Kristin Goetzman, offer farm to school programing to
more than 900 students. Additionally, Members assist schools in growing produce
in the schools through use of the Goodwill Grows Growing Machine.
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Northland Pines
School District: AmeriCorps Members Jasmyn Schmidt and Deb Jircik serve all
schools in the Northland Pines School District. They work with students to
maintain three school gardens and bring students in to collaborate with the
local Community Garden. This site will be hosting a visit from Alice in
Dairyland October 27th for a Farm to School Month event.
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REAP Food Group: REAP is
one of our longest running host sites and sponsors four Nutrition Educators-
Haley Miller, Kim Mayer, Emily Blustien, and Erin Moriarty. They serve schools
in the Madison Metropolitan School District. In addition to sponsoring
nutrition lessons they also host multiple chef-in-the-classroom programs and
procure and process healthy snacks for MMSD foodservice. They will be hosting
two events for Great Apple Crunch. The first includes appearances by UW Badger
athletes and local celebrities; the event on the day of the Crunch also
includes a farmer visit and veggie tasting.
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Richland County School
District: AmeriCorps Member
Chelsey Walters has been working hard to incorporate the community in farm to
school events. She has coordinated a community corn shucking event, which
benefits the schools’ cafeteria, and participated in homecoming events
promoting farm to school programing. This site serves schools in two other
districts, in addition to the Richland School District schools, with nutrition
lessons.
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Sixteenth Street Community Health Center:
A new host site this year, Members Rachel Pettit and Kate Holter, are serving Milwaukee
with farm to school programing. In addition to nutrition and garden education they
are connecting local growers and community health groups to area students.
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Spooner
Area School District: AmeriCorps Member Kate Curran offers nutrition
education lessons to area schools from elementary to high school. She also
helps maintain school gardens at each of the area schools. In addition to
procuring local apples for Great Apple Crunch at the early care center in
Spooner, this site will host a visit from Wisconsin Secretary of Agriculture,
Ben Brancel, later in November.
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Stevens Point YMCA: Stevens
Point area is now served through the YMCA’s Wellness and Chronic Disease
program. AmeriCorps Members Sarah Zdroik and Megan Ball work with schools and
early childcare centers in the area to provide healthy local snacks as well as
nutrition education. Their Great Apple Crunch event will feature locally
procured apples, a lesson on the life cycle of the apple tree and a visit from
a local farmer!
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Washburn School District:
The Washburn host site sponsors nutrition education lessons for students in all
grades, as well as boasts multiple large school gardens and a well established
aquaponics system. The gardens produce enough food to comprise a large part of
the district’s food service supplies.
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Waupaca
County UW Extension: AmeriCorps Members Jean Oberstadt and Alex Berg,
bring farm to school programing to over 550 students in area schools. They have
been working to expand services and establish school gardens in area early
childcare centers as well.
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Winnebago County
Health Department- re:TH!NK
Winnebago: AmeriCorps Member Amanda Ross serves over 600 students in
Oshkosh area schools. This host site has facilitated the introduction of 18
school salad bars and created the annual event, Cookin’ It Fresh, which pairs
local area chefs with teams of high school students to create healthy menu
items for school lunches. The event culminates in a tasting competition open to
the public and selection of a winning dish to be used in the school lunch
program.
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