Alaska Farm to School Challenge NAAMO Marketing Excellence Award 2015 Amy Pettit for Johanna Herron

Complimenting NFSN efforts Celebrate Champions Fostering new relationships & leveraging new partners Low budget – NO BUDGET Making something out of nothing

Build off the success of the national program. Why reinvent the wheel? Compliment – not compete.

Everyone loves a CHALLENGE! Teachers, students, PTA organizations – the opportunity for PRIZES gets a lot of people excited. Engage your choir – your champions. Make sure that people realize the activities they’re ALREADY conducting likely qualify! Make it EASY! Survey monkey fillable form to indicate activities, participation, etc.

Kids LOVE cooking contests.

Fostering new relationships/partnerships. National Food Day…Dept of Education, Child Nutrition Dept. Get Food Service involved! LOCAL LUNCH DAY

Students sampled carrots from the Lower 48 & from a local farm; kids got to vote. Local carrots won by a wide margin. Front page news.

Taste test new recipes for potential use on the school lunch menu and “Name that Dish”

MEDIA Celebrating something that was already happening! FTS Challenge brought new attention

Unique/innovative Impact New concepts & methods Market based knowledge Applicable to other States? Unique/innovative: yes – something out of nothing Impact: engaged 5000 students annually; “Local Lunch Day” engaged 75% of Alaska School Districts New concepts: including Fish to School & traditional foods Market based knowledge: FTS program surveyed school districts annually; they were asking for more information on product availability, product form, recipes, etc. Recognizing that our producers likely couldn’t meet a year-round need, we launched Farm to School month & Local Lunch day to give them an opportunity to highlight their efforts.

“Marketing is a contest for peoples attention.” S. Godin

Questions? Johanna.Herron@alaska.gov (907) 761-3870