MI Farm to School News

Greetings from Washington, D.C.!

I've been spending the last two days at the Healthy Kids, Healthy Futures summit, which is an opportunity for early care and education and public health practitioners to come together and strategize for integrating health initiatives into ECE settings. So many great ideas and collaborations coming out, but I am excited by the number of mentions of Farm to School as a strategy! Nutrition and healthy lifestyle promotion, family and community engagement, and opportunities for experiential learning – not to mention the opportunities to build economic opportunities for small farmers!

LOTS of opportunities this week, including our upcoming Garden to Cafeteria webinar (and some other opportunities to get involved in school gardens) and the approaching scholarship deadline for the Farm to Cafeteria Conference. 

News

• What's for Lunch? Demanding Quality Protein in School Meals – Yahoo!
  • America's schools collectively spend nearly $1 billion per year on poultry and legumes. School Food FOCUS works with school districts to coordinate this purchasing power and put market pressure on food companies to provide healthier proteins for our nation's school children.

Resources

• Michigan School Garden Newsletter
  • If you're interested in learning MORE about school gardens, be sure to sign up for this great newsletter out of MSU Extension! Additionally, attached is a flyer for the MSUE Starting and Sustaining a School Garden workshop, which can be registered for by April 1 here

Opportunities

• Webinar: Garden to Cafeteria – Tuesday, February 16, 2-3:30 pm
  • Don't miss this opportunity to learn about garden to cafeteria programs and hear from practitioners in the field who are successfully using garden harvests in their procurement strategies. Webinar can be accessed at http://msucrfs.adobeconnect.com/mifarmtoschool AND calling 1-719-234-7800 with participant code 738419
• Job Opening: Detroit School Gardens Collaborative Garden Attendant – Deadline Wednesday, February 17
  • Detroit School Garden Collaborative is seeking five seasonal, part time staff to support their work. Interested applicants should email Monica Rischiotto at monica.rischiotto@detroitk12.org or call 313-651-3457 for more information
• 2016 NSLP Equipment Assistance Grants – USDA
  • Fuel Up to Play 60 is providing $5 million dollars, in addition to the USDA's school nutrition equipment grants, to support equipment purchases to facilitate the use of fresh food
  
  

Conferences

• Farm to Cafeteria Scholarship Deadline – Monday, February 29
  •  The National Farm to School Network is now accepting applications for scholarships to the 8th National Farm to Cafeteria Conference, which will take place in Madison, Wis., June 2-4, 2016. The MSU CRFS Farm to School team will be presenting in FOUR workshops this year. Come join us
• 2016 National Good Food Network Conference – March 30 - April 1, Atlanta, GA
  • This year's conference theme is "Maintaining Values while Building Value," with a special daylong in-depth food hub training the day before. 
• 2016 Good Food Festival & Conference - March 24 - March 26, Chicago, IL
  • Celebrate the region's growing local food community with three dynamic days connecting people active in the Good Food community.

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