2010 National Farm to Cafeteria Conference

Michigan's Farm to School program announced the dates of the upcoming 5th annual conference for Farm to Cafeteria. In 2010, it will be held in Detroit on May 17th - 19th (last year it was held in Portland, Oregon and the topics covered looked fantastic.) Be sure to follow the updates at the conference website: http://www.farmtocafeteriaconference.org/.

Thanks to Collen Matts, of the CS Mott Group for Sustainable Food Systems,(http://www.mifarmtoschool.msu.edu/) for the heads-up!

2009 New York Harvest for New York Kids Week

I think we have started to really get the hang of this concept of making purchases of local produce and integrating them into the school menus. This school year, it all got started the week of October 5th -11th, the time frame selected by the NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets to celebrate “Farm To You Fest” in schools. For area school food service managers, as members of the Schoharie Valley Farm to School Project, this was also the second year of planning and implementation for Harvest Week. Thus, building upon the relationships forged in 2008, while expanding the reach of our message with expanded activities, yielded a busy but rewarding week. In one of our schools, the food service manager had even extended the menu adjustments into the entire month.

Of course, the primary focus was to serve up wholesome local produce on school lunch trays, and let the children know what they were eating. Local pears, apples, broccoli, squash, potatoes, carrots and cabbage, were provided either fresh or in menu items such as White Pizza with Broccoli, Roasted Herb Potatoes, Dill Potato Salad, Garlic Bread made with Fresh Roasted Garlic, Homemade Coleslaw, Gingerbread-Carrot Cake, Zucchini-Tomato-Cheddar Bake, Vegetable Soup, Sauté Squash, and Sweet Corn on the Cob. Deee-licious!

In several schools, youngsters were made acquainted with a farmer, either serving in the cafeteria or speaking in a classroom. Corn husking was a popular activity that provided the students with a chance to get closer to their food source and the farmer who grew it. At one of the schools, preparing squash that they had seeded in the previous year for a food donation program, got kids personally interested in the acceptance of the dish by the larger student population. Food Service Managers were also pulled into the classroom to help teach about food and nutrition.

Senator James Seward and State Assemblyman Peter Lopez, both of which served lunch in the elementary school cafeteria, supported us in our efforts with a special visit to Schoharie Central Schools. Later in the week, NYS Commissioner of Agriculture and Markets, Patrick Hooker, along with local farmer and owner of the Carrot Barn, Richard Ball, read off that day’s PA announcements, which had been composed to highlight Harvest Week. Similar announcements were made in each of the schools each day of the Harvest Week celebration, thus, spreading the message of the importance of various fruits and vegetables readily available nearby. By in large, the biggest hit might have been the “Produce Trading Cards” made available to K-6th graders. Students collected the set of nine cards, featuring a particular fruit of vegetable on each, over the course of the week.

Who were these heroes of the Farm to School movement in the Schoharie Valley region of NYS? The Food Service Managers of the following schools deserve much of the credit for implementing a multi-faceted approach to Harvest Week, covering a lot of ground in the interest of encouraging student consumption of locally grown fruits and vegetables: Berne/Knox/Westerlo CSD, Cobleskill/Richmondville CSD, Gilboa-Conesville CSD, Middleburgh CSD, Schoharie CSD, and Sharon Springs CSD. Our thanks go, as well, to these farms that made available their produce, and in some cases their time, to our schools: Barber’s Farm, Bohringer’s Fruit Farm, Fox Creek Farm, Parsons Vegetable Farm, RSK Farm, Shauls Farm, Schoharie Valley Farm, Sharon Orchards, Stone House Farm, and Terrace Mountain Orchards.

Deb Rosko, School Food Service Manager at Berne/Knox/Westerlo CSD, said it best when she explained that, “while we cannot force students to make healthy food choices, we can indeed offer them not only the food but the benefits the food brings, to their own bodies as well as to the local farm community.” Now, that’s an education that could stick with students for a lifetime.

SV Farm to School :: In The News

Schoharie Valley Farm to School celebration of New York Harvest for NY Kids Week (October 5th - 11th) is covered in the local newspaper, the Times Journal. Thanks Jim! (Photo by R. Tillman: Harvest theme accompanies local fruit in the Cobleskill-Richmondville CSD Cafeteria)

Local Produce Hits Schools This Week
by Jim Poole, October 7, 2009

Students in area schools are reaping the harvest from local farms this week. They are enjoying a range of fruits and vegetables from regional producers, thanks to the NY Harvest for NY Kids Week.

Its's part of the year-long Farm to You Fest 2009 promoted by Cornell Cooperative Extension and the state Department of Agriculture and Markets.

"At its core, this is to establish a relationship between schools and farms and farmers," said Regina Tillman, coordinator of the Farm to School Project at the Extension office in Cobleskill. She's been working with school food service directors from... > Read More

WV Department of Education Campaign to Improve School Lunches

West Virginia children are at risk for poor nutrition, and schools are in a great position to do something about it.

That’s why the West Virginia Department of Education’s Office of Child Nutrition has developed a nationally recognized policy to improve school nutrition and launched a statewide campaign to dramatically improve the way kids eat at school.

Local nutrition directors are taking a lead in the Smart Foods=Smarter Kids campaign by directly engaging parents, students, schools and community leaders in the effort to improve school nutrition.

School nutrition directors and local wellness council members will learn about the Smart Foods=Smarter Kids campaign and other nutrition issues during a three-day statewide conference October 20 through October 22 at the Waterfront Place Hotel in Morgantown.

“Families, schools and communities have a shared role in teaching children healthy eating habits and physical activity,” says state Superintendent Steve Paine. “The participants in this conference will learn new ways they can help children build skills and knowledge to live a healthy life now and for years to come.”

Throughout the conference, emphasis will be placed on the opportunities, challenges and decisions child nutrition personnel face while providing nourishing meals and creating healthy school environments for West Virginia students.

Participants will learn how the Smart Foods=Smarter Kids program can help reverse the tide of childhood obesity. The online toolkit focuses on five aspects of the state’s child nutrition policy: Eating At School is Cool, Fruitful Fundraising, Healthy Snacks, Rewarding Success and Let’s Party, Let’s Play.

In addition, a Website offers healthy recipes, school wellness success stories, customized promotional tools and other information.

Conference speakers will include Dr. Carole Harris and Dr. Drew Bradlyn from West Virginia University’s Health Research Center, who will provide an overview of research conducted as part of the West Virginia Healthy Lifestyle’s Act.

“To achieve the goal of smart foods and smarter kids, we need to get everyone excited about good child nutrition,” says Paine. “Parents, schools and communities can help make eating at school healthy and cool.”

For more information regarding the conference, contact Rick Goff, executive director for the Office of Child Nutrition at (304) 558-2709 or the Office of Communications at (304) 558-2699.

USDA Blog: Ag Deputy Secretary Merrigan on Local Foods

Agriculture Deputy Secretary Merrigan Launches Website for 'Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food': USDA Blog : weblog

School Meals: Building Blocks for Healthy Children - Institute of Medicine

Posted using ShareThis

IOM Consensus Report for updates to school nutrition standards for the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program, issued on October 20th. Good recommendations but still need USDA to incorporate. Here is the "test"... will the science prevail, or will the standards be influenced by "the money".

Watch this video to see why corporate profits may be what informs the revisions to the standards as written for our children's school meals. The info herein surprised me a bit... how about you?

The Food Lobby Goes To School

Check out and sign up today! Health professional webinar: Safeguarding the health of America’s children: The important role of nutrient-rich foods

Considering the number of deficiencies in the nutritional intake of children within the USA, despite often having an abundance of food available, take a look at: Health professional webinar: Safeguarding the health of America’s children: The important role of nutrient-rich foods.

Scheduled for October 29th. See you at the webinar!

Welcome!

Welcome! This is the beginning of our interface with the larger community in the hopes of affecting a positive change in what our children know about food, and thus, their eating behavior. It's projected that sinking some of the school food service dollars (NYS-wide equals a total budget of more than $16 billion/year) into local economies will help sustain small-mid size farms that comprise our local/regional food supply systems. As part of the larger "Farm to Table" concept, we in the Schoharie Valley area in NY State, are trying to do our part in a region once known as the "Breadbasket of the Revolutionary War". Please visit often and sign up for the RSS feed so you don't miss a beat! We will monitor both local and national progress in the effort to make purchasing local foods a standard practice for schools. Thank you!