MI Culinary Program? WI partnership/grant opportunity...

Hello Farm to School Listserv - 

In Wisconsin last year, the Madison School district partnered with local culinary programs to pilot a college-level paid school food traineeship. Post-secondary students enrolled in culinary courses at tech/vocational/community colleges were paid and placed at internships in school cafeterias to train for a career in school nutrition. There were some great outcomes, and the district is looking to expand the program in Wisconsin AND is also looking for schools in Michigan that would be interested in participating. The expansion to Michigan schools could be funded with a Lake Michigan School Food System Innovation Collaborative grant. If you are interested in being a part of this multi-state grant application, to provide school cafeteria internships to post-secondary college students here in Michigan, or would like to learn more, contact Daithi Wolfe, Senior Policy Analyst, dwolfe@kidsforward.org.

 

Here is some more information from Kids Forward... 

The idea is for regional collaboration to explore the opportunity to replicate our pilot project in one or more states. We would like to partner with: 

• Instructors in Michigan's 2-year colleges' culinary programs
• Food service directors in nearby school districts

PLUSSES--

• The model has already been successfully implemented in two communities
• The curriculum and timeline/contracts/logistics, etc. have already been developed
• The current WI grantees would be available to provide TA

MINUSSES--

• You need to find both a school food service champion AND a tech college culinary arts instructor champion
• It's a major commitment and there will be bumps along the road and creativity/flexibility are keys to implementation

Here is the description of the current program in Wisconsin: 

"School Nutrition Culinary Innovators of Tomorrow" with REAP Food Group & Wello, Inc. and partnered with: Madison Metropolitan School District, Green Bay Area Public School District, Seasonal Harvest LLC, Rooted, Northeast Wisconsin Technical College and Madison College 

This project will develop and implement a college-level paid School Food Stage (SFS) traineeship aimed at growing the appeal of school nutrition careers among culinary students. This is a regional collaboration approach, co-led by REAP and Wello, that will build the SFS traineeship based on the specific needs and aspirations of the school nutrition programs at Madison Metropolitan School District and Green Bay Public Schools while leveraging the expertise of the professional culinary programs at Madison College and Northeast Wisconsin Technical College (NWTC) in Green Bay. The traineeship will also provide the opportunity to learn from Rooted and Seasonal Harvest to better understand how to move local foods from the field to the school cafeteria. 

Julie Lehman (she/her)

Farm to Youth Network Coordinator

Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems 

Michigan Farm to ECE

Michigan Farm to School

Lake Michigan School Food System Innovation Hub

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