Nutrition Improvement Initiative Status for PiE 5/7/2012

Agenda School Garden Nutrition Improvement & Farm to School Where are we? Budget

School Garden School Year – Built school garden – Largely funded by 2 grants Skinny Pancake ($500) Annie’s noodles ($200) – Supports summer school and regular school School Year – Improved the open house dinner – 1 team in the Junior Iron Chef – Established seed day and seed lab based on best practices – Improvements desired Shed Benches … outdoor classroom Blueberry bushes – Just won the Home Depot $500 garden grant

Nutrition Improvement Meet appx every 6 weeks Following VT FEED Farm to School (FTS) materials on transforming school food programs Developed mission statement for the school food program Surveyed Parents about cafeteria food – Over 50% of families responded. Lots of interest. Currently surveying students about cafeteria food

Path to a FTS school Establish team - key players + extended team Educate the community Great change in the cafeteria program depends on – Education – Change – Powering thru the resistance – parent and student

Where are we? Nutrition Education Institute – Focus is connecting the classroom nutrition education to the cafeteria and to the community – 3 day training for team of 6 – Mentor/consultant for 18 months – This is a big win for HCS State of VT FTS implementation grant (appx 20K) – Money will support cafeteria purchasing practices and changing food offerings – Application due in October 2012 – If we don’t win… School Year – VT Hunger program – Cooking for Life – King Arthur’s bread program – Plus Nutrition Education Institute changes. This will largely drive this group’s agenda.

Annual Support from PiE Garden – $500 per year $200 startup $300 improvement/supplies/celebration Open House dinner – $300 per year – who budgets this? Cafeteria FTS Training/Conferences – $500 - $1000 per year Cafeteria general support ?? Junior Iron Chef support – $200 per team