Congrats to all those who made it through the first week of the 2015-2016 school year, and for those who have been working all summer long!
Things are gearing up here with school in session, and we are hard at work planning the upcoming trainings as well as promoting the 2015 Apple CRUNCH and supporting all those throughout the state wanting to engage in Farm to School this school year! It's sure to be a good year, and I hope I get the chance to meet you all throughout the year!
News:
- Traverse City Record Eagle: Agriculture forum: Farmers pay attention to school
- Diane Conners of Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities highlights opportunities for farmers in expanding markets to schools, including highlighting the 10 Cents a Meal pilot in Northwest Michigan.
- Model D: Fighting Food Insecurity in Detroit
- Highlights the potential impacts of farm to early childhood on health and economic progress. This article emphasizes that improved childhood health can not only lead to decreased healthcare costs in the long term, but also increases the economic productivity of individuals.
- USDA: USDA awards $8 million to support healthier foods in schools and child care centers
- Tom Vilsack announced funding for expanding and improving food service training programs to encompass nutrition education in school meal settings, in addition to providing support to train school nutrition employees managing National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs in meeting new professional standards.
Opportunities:
- Webinar September 16, 3-4 pm: USDA's Team Nutrition Nutrition Education in the Classroom and Beyond: Tips for EducatorsG
- Go back to school with tools and resources that support healthy learning! This webinar will discuss innovative ways elementary and middle school eduators can integrate nutrition education into core subjects like math, language arts, and science. New teaching resources available from Team Nutrition for the 2015-2016 School year will be shared. Register here.
- Webinar September 24, 2-3 pm: Kids Eat Real Food – Marketing and Lunchroom Education
- Learn techniques that have brought Boulder's kids back tot he lunch program and raised participation every year since 2009. Lear marketing best practices and turn your students into real food aficionados. Register here
- National School Lunch Week is October 12-16, 2015
- What better way to celebrate that incorporating local products? Download the toolkit here
Research:
- Harvest for Healthy Kids Pilot Study: associations between exposure to a farm-to-preschool intervention and willingness to try and liking of target fruits and vegetables among low-income children in Head Start.
- That is quite the research title – in terms that I can understand, kids in farm to preschool initiatives try and like more new vegetables (but additional research necessary). I'm sure many of you have seen evidence of this in your own farm to school programming – share stories with me if you've got them!
- USDA: Farm to School Grant Awards 2013-2015
- The USDA just released their summary of Farm to School grant awards from 2013-2015. This report provides an in-depth look at the first three years of the USDA Farm to School Grant Program, including concrete data garnered from the 221 farm to school projects its funded and more qualitative stories on the various initiatives it has funded. Be sure to check out the document (attached to this email) to read more about the work this grant is supporting.
Also, at the risk of turning into a broken record, don't forget to register for the Farm to School Trainings coming up in two weeks!
Happy weekending,
Abby Harper
Farm to School Specialist
Center for Regional Food Systems | Michigan State University
480 Wilson Rd | Rm 309 Natural Resources Building East Lansing, MI 48824
(p) 517.432.4525 (c) 857.600.6921
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