Happy Farm to School Month!

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Michigan Farm to School and Early Care & Education wishes you a Happy Farm to School Month! National Farm to School Month is here! October is National Farm to School Month, a time to celebrate the connections happening all over the country between children and local food! Join us in sharing this year’s theme, "Growing for the Future." Whether you're planning a special local lunch, organizing a farm field trip, tending to school garden activities, or participating in Michigan’s Great Apple Crunch, farm to school in the great state of Michigan is worth celebrating! Find activities, ideas, and resources in the free 2025 Farm to School Month Celebration Toolkit!  Explore additional key resources provided by National Farm to School Network below. The link includes vibrant farm to school month artwork, coloring pages, posters, a fact sheet, and a resource database – all for free! Free Farm to School Resources Celebrate Farm to School month with a school-wide apple crunch this October! Thursday, October 16th, at noon is the official Michigan Great Apple Crunch date, but your school’s Crunch is welcome anytime this October!  Register your school’s crunch.  Follow the Michigan Apple Crunch Facebook page.   Promote, tag #MIAppleCrunch, and share photos from your Apple Crunch!  There are so many ways to Crunch!  Check out the:  Michigan Crunch Guide  Michigan Crunch Guide for Early Care and Education  Michigan Crunch Guide for K-12 Schools  Show your support of Michigan farmers, healthy kids, and strong communities this October! Register! Lake Michigan School Food System Innovation Hub Spark and Innovation Collaborative Awards: APPLICATIONS OPEN OCTOBER 15, 2025! Do you know a way to bring local, nutritious food to more schools across our region?  MSU’s Center for Regional Food Systems is a part of the Lake Michigan School Food System Innovation Hub, which supports people working to improve school meals across Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. The initiative offers funding, training, and other assistance to partnerships that include farmers, food producers, suppliers, distributors, schools, and organizations.  Applications for two new funding opportunities will open October 15, 2025. Spark Awards Spark Awards fund projects that need a short-term infusion of funds for school food system and product improvements, such as capacity-building, planning, and product-testing projects. ($30K - $100K per year)  Innovation Collaborative Awards Innovation Collaborative Awards fund projects that promote systems-level change of the school food system, such as scaling up of programs, forming regional partnerships, or developing or integrating new programs or products. ($250K - $500K over 2 ½ years)  Visit the Support for Michigan Applicants Page to connect with Michigan's state leads, develop project ideas, form, and manage partnerships, connect with resources, answer questions about your application, and strengthen your grant-writing by reviewing and/or editing your application! Learn more at InnovateSchoolFood.org, and contact your State Lead, Julie Lehman, with any questions at lehmanju@msu.edu.  Did this email get forwarded to you? Join the mailing list here. About Michigan Farm to School Farm to School centers around efforts to serve local foods in school and early care and education settings. We share ideas, tools and resources to support a range of efforts, from school garden programming to farmer visits and field trips. Visit mifarmtoschool.msu.edu >> FOODSYSTEMS.MSU.EDU   You are receiving this email because you are subscribed to the MIFARMTOSCHOOL listserv. Please note that if you unsubscribe from this mailing, you will be removed from the listserv.

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