Special Edition Bulletin: Farm to School Celebrations
Announcements from the WI DPI School Nutrition Team (SNT)
Farm to School Celebrations
October is National Farm to School Month, a time to celebrate local food, nutrition and agricultural education, and school gardens. Farm to School (F2S) provides students with fresh, nutritious, and appealing foods, teaches students where their food comes from, and invests directly back into local communities. Read more about upcoming events, resources, and F2S successes over the past year.
Upcoming Event: Great Apple Crunch
Participate in the Great Apple Crunch, collectively crunching into locally grown apples to celebrate National Farm to School Month! The official date of the Crunch is Thursday, October 10 but Crunch anytime throughout the month of October. Do not forget to Register Your School(s) or District, Early Care and Education Site(s), or Households for the Crunch.
Request a visit from the DPI F2S team to help with your Crunch event by emailing, DPIF2S@dpi.wi.gov. F2S specialists will coordinate one or two school visits based on availability. These visits could include helping with event prep, handing out apples, and providing free, F2S giveaways for kids who crunch!
New! Wisconsin Farm to School Recognition Program
Participate in the Wisconsin F2S Recognition Program from October 2024 through May 2025 to gain recognition and celebrate your F2S accomplishments. There are four levels of recognition with a bonus level for F2S champions! Levels are named after broccoli “puns” – Broccoli Sprout, Broccoli Seedling, Broccoli Floret, Broccoli Crown, and bonus Broccoli Flowering level. Prizes will be awarded for each level of completion.
Recognition levels are based on completion of activities in the three core areas of F2S: procurement, school gardens, and nutrition and agricultural education. Any Wisconsin school may register to participate using the Wisconsin Farm to School Recognition Program Sign-Up Form. Each school must sign-up individually and awards are given at the school level. There is no limit to the number of schools that can participate in one district. To learn more about the program, an Informational Webinar will be available on October 1, 2024, from 1:30-2:30 PM. Registration for the webinar is required.
Farm to School Promotional Materials
Wisconsin schools may request free, F2S promotional items! Items include menu signage, Producer Highlight posters, window clings, magnets, and stickers. Place your order using the Promotional Items Order Form.
Farm to School Grant Opportunities
Need funding for your F2S activities? Keep up-to-date with the latest F2S grants on the Grants Webpage, Farm to School Heading.
Farm to School Successes in the Past Year
National F2S Month serves as a great opportunity to highlight the awesome F2S accomplishments from the past year. Check out these program features below.
New, Fulltime F2S Staff on the DPI School Nutrition Team
Through a USDA Supply Chain Resiliency Farm to School grant, the WI DPI was able to hire three, fulltime positions dedicated to F2S work. Chef and former Food Service Director, Jeff Mallegni; David Lee Schneider, former F2S AmeriCorps Service member, farmer and agriculturalist; and Brittany Zerbe, former Public Health Nutritionist and Registered Dietitian make up our team. See the Trio of Expertise document for a photo of the team and contact information. Reach out with any questions you have about F2S!
Wisconsin Local Food for Schools Program (WI LFS)
The WI LFS Program, funded by the USDA provided nearly $3.5 million to schools and farmers to supply local, unprocessed and minimally processed food to children in the USDA National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs. Money spent on local foods for the school meal programs supported the community, growth of local supply chains, and strengthened the local economy. Schools received local foods that spanned across all five meal components - vegetables (e.g., carrots, roasting vegetables, beets), fruits (e.g., apples, cantaloupe, watermelon chunks), milk, meat/meat alternates (e.g., bison, walleye, cheese, eggs, yogurt), grains (e.g., cornmeal, whole wheat flour), and extras (e.g., honey, maple syrup, sour cream). The estimated economic impact of the WI LFS Program is between $3.8 and $6.8 million dollars. Although, all funding is currently gone, the WI Department of Public Instruction has included funding for a future program in the WI State Budget request. Stay tuned!
Photo credit: Bayfield School District serving a meal of local elk roast, local wild rice, cottage cheese, milk, and vegetables.
Produce Processing Trainings
The DPI School Nutrition Team is offering in-person produce processing training for school nutrition professionals. The goal of these trainings is to increase speed, skill, and confidence with processing of raw produce to increase local product procurement. In some instances, this training has expanded to include cooking local, raw ground beef and beef patties, using commercial cooking equipment like a tilt skillet.
Chef Jeff Mallegni, Farm to School (F2S) Specialist from the DPI’s Farm to School team kicked off these training sessions in April 2024. He was assisted for training visits by F2S specialists, David Lee Schneider, and Brittany Zerbe, and the AmeriCorps Coulee Region service member, Nicole Eshelman. Training dates are currently being scheduled throughout the 2024-25 school year. Training groups range in size from five to over 100 participants. Complete a Produce Processing Training Interest Form to be considered for scheduling.
To date, seven separate locations have been visited. Some local produce items demonstrated include watermelon, cantaloupe, bell peppers, head lettuce, onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, and cucumbers. Other non-local produce items demonstrated include pineapple and jicama.
2024 Cucumber Crunch
77 schools, early care and education sites, community-based organizations and non-profits participated in the 2024 Cucumber Crunch! Registered sites crunched into locally grown cucumbers (or another in-season fruit or vegetable) during the summer months to celebrate local foods and farm to summer.
DPI School Nutrition staff visited Whitehall School District to help with their Cucumber Crunch event. Summer school students received fun F2S swag including drawstring bags, sunglasses, handstamps, and stickers for trying a bite. After the event, one student said: "This is the first time I ever had a cucumber. I love them, and I want more"!
Wisconsin F2S and F2ECE Statewide Information Sessions
Wisconsin F2S and F2ECE Statewide Information Sessions kicked off in April 2024. Join F2S and F2ECE stakeholders to learn more about F2S/F2ECE projects happening around the State. Updates will be provided on open grants, training opportunities, new resources, upcoming events, and current projects. Meetings will be held monthly on the fourth Thursday from 1:30-2:30 PM.
To register, send an email to subscribe-f2s-and-f2ece@lists.dpi.wi.gov (no message necessary). You will only need to register once to receive the monthly, recurring invite.
AmeriCorps Farm to School Program
The 2023-2024 cohort of AmeriCorps Farm to School members taught 4,812 different students a variety of nutrition education lessons. 3,473 of those students received a minimum of 5 lessons totaling at least 150 minutes of nutrition education. AmeriCorps members also worked closely with their school nutrition directors and teachers to host over 900 different local food taste tests, offer local foods on school lunch menus 11,640 times, connect close to 40 different farmers to students through field trips and classroom presentations, and spent 704 hours with students doing school garden activities. Thank you for your service, AmeriCorps members!
To learn how you can host a member at your school to help increase your farm to school programming, Watch for Host Site Applications to open this winter for the 2025-2026 school year.
New Resources
A suite of new resources was released in 2023-24 to help schools integrate local foods into school meals and connect with local farmers. The full list of new resources can be found below.
- How to Get Started with Farm to School In A Nutshell - use this resource to identify 1-2 goals for your school or district to kickstart F2S programming.
- Crediting Local Beef – this step-by-step guide can be used to determine creditable amount of raw beef after cooking.
- Transitioning from the Local Foods for Schools (LFS) Grant – this resource provides information on how to continue the momentum of local foods purchasing post-LFS.
- Known Food Hubs, Co-ops and Aggregators that Sell to Wisconsin Schools - find contact information and service areas of known food hubs, co-ops and aggregators offering local foods.
- Sample Social Media Posts – these template social media posts can increase your school nutrition department’s social media reach and promote your F2S efforts.
- Farm to School Salad Bar Labels – print and fill-in these template salad bar labels to highlight any local products and the local farms your products were purchased from for your salad bar.
- Standard Operating Procedure (SOP): Accepting School Garden Produce - use this template SOP to ensure school garden produce is harvested safely, received in sound condition, and is stored properly after receipt.
- Selling to Schools: Licensing Requirements In a Nutshell – this comprehensive resource includes all State of Wisconsin and federal licensing requirements for selling to schools or buying from a local supplier.
- Crediting Foods for Child Nutrition Programs: A Resource for Local Producers - information on school meal requirements and the documentation schools require for local purchasing.
- The Lifecycle of Farm to School Workshop Series: Although this resource is not new within the last year, it is a great resource to reference! Learn about the eight stages of a school garden. Each stage includes resources and/or videos to get started.
Learn more
Want to keep updated on F2S happenings? Be sure to read the DPI Harvest Highlights Newsletter for monthly updates, including grant opportunities, new resources, training opportunities, and more!
Contact DPIF2S@dpi.wi.gov with any questions about anything F2S!
Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction
Jill K. Underly, PhD, State Superintendent
125 S Webster Street
Madison, WI 53703
(608) 266-3390 • (800) 441-4563