MI Farm to School News

Happy Friday, Michiganders!

Don't forget to join us for our webinar on proper procurement for local food coming up on Monday! See details below. A lot of you have expressed interest to me in better understanding this, so hopefully I'll see many of you there! Lots of good stuff this week:

Opportunities

• Webinar: Sourcing Local Food: Understanding Procurement Rules and Regulations – January 25, 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
  • Join us along with MDE on Monday to learn more about how to properly procure local foods! Access info in the link.
• Scholarships Available for National Farm to Cafeteria Conference – due February 29 at 5 pm
  • Scholarship applications are open for this year's Farm to Cafeteria conference in Madison, WI in June.
• USDA Webinar: Setting goals and establishing an evaluation baseline – Jan 28, 2016, 2:00 pm
  • The second in USDA's Farm to School webinar series, focusing on integrating program planning and evaluation to document farm to school program impacts.
• Farms, Food & Health Conference – January 29, Traverse City, MI
  • There will be opportunities for food service directors as well as educators interested in farm to school
• Michigan Fitness Foundation 2016 Choices Conference – March 9-11 2016, Dearborn, MI
  • The Michigan Fitness Foundation's annual conference in celebration of food, health, and collaboration.

News

• Child Nutrition Act Markup Finally on the Calendar – NSAC
  • Find out more about the 2016 Child Nutrition Act Reauthorization (CNAR).
• MSU and local schools offer Garden to Cafeteria training – MSU Extension
  • Kaitlin Wojciak highlights our upcoming Garden to Cafeteria webinar!
• Kohlrabi: Coming soon to a school near you – MSU Extension
  • MSU Extension highlights our friend Mark Coe at Farm to Freezer in Traverse City and his partnership with Traverse City Area Public Schools to get an unusual vegetable on students plates! I always said Kohlrabi was going to be the next apple. In fact, I propose 2016 have a Kohlrabi Crunch along with an Apple Crunch. Kohlrabi is delicious. Make it happen, people.

Research

• Effect of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act on the Nutritional Quality of Meals Selected by Students and School Lunch Participation Rates – JAMA
  • Research shows that the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) was associated with an increase in students selecting meal options higher in nutrients. In the district study, meal standards effectively changed the quality of foods selected by children
• Creating Healthy Food Environments for Latino Kids – NFSN
  • Presents findings on the impacts of healthy school food environments on latino populations, and information about Salud America!'s online resources for creating community change

Best,

Abby Harper

Farm to School Specialist

MSU Center for Regional Food Systems

480 Wilson Rd Rm 309 | East Lansing, MI 48824

(p) 517-432-4525 (f) 517-353-3834

www.foodsystems.msu.edu | www.mifarmtoschool.msu.edu