1. Wisconsin Farm to School:
New initiatives and a common vision
Wisconsin Local Food Summit

2. Wisconsin Farm to School
Wisconsin Local Food Summit
La Crosse, WI

3. Agenda Welcome Pair & Share: Your Farm to School Questions
Farm to School Status Update
Chop! Chop!
FSMIP
DPI USDA Farm to School Grant
Strategic Planning and Questions
Closing

4. Pair & Share Activity 3. Answer this question:
Find a partner, someone you don’t know.
2. Introduce Yourself!
3. Answer this question:
What one question do you have about farm to school in Wisconsin?
4. Write your question on these pieces of paper! We’ll make sure to answer them this weekend.

5. Wisconsin Farm to School Basics

6. Wisconsin Act 293
“Farm to School” connects schools with local and regional farms to provide children with fruits and vegetables, dairy products, and other nutritious, locally produced foods in school breakfasts, lunches, and snacks; helps children develop healthy eating habits; provides nutritional and agricultural education; and improves farmers’ incomes and direct access to markets.
Sarah

7. At least 113 early care sites in WI engage in farm to ECE activities.
More than 55% of the school districts in WI are engaged in farm to school activities.
At least 113 early care sites in WI engage in farm to ECE activities.
Top Five Products Apples Tomatoes Potatoes Peppers Lettuce
Link to USDA F2S Census

8. and documented past achievements

9. FY15-16 WI F2S Accomplishments

10. Last year presented new structure

11. Wisconsin Farm to School Toolkits www.cias.wisc.edu/toolkits
Returning This Month! The Wisconsin Farm to School and Farm to Early Care Newsletter! Hitting your mailboxes twice a month with all the latest news!
Sign up in the back of the room on the form in the back of the room.

12. Chop! Chop! Video Series FREE online training videos
Enable food service staff use more WI-grown fruits, vegetables & whole grains via culinary skills
These training videos are a joint project of CESA Nutrition Purchasing, the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems and Team Nutrition of the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. Watch videos on 6 different topics
Dark Leafy Green Salads
Cabbage, Broccoli and Cauliflower Slaw
Roasted Root Vegetables
Pureed Winter Squash
Tomato and Pepper Ratatouille
Whole Grain Pizza Dough and Blueberry Oat Muffins
These videos will help you:
Increase your knowledge of and familiarity with culinary skills needed for cooking with fresh produce and whole grains
Support Wisconsin farmers and businesses by purchasing and using Wisconsin-grown products
Increase your students’ consumption of Wisconsin-grown fruits and vegetables
Incorporate new recipes that meet the USDA Meal pattern requirements, including red/orange and dark green vegetable subgroups
Receive training that counts toward the USDA’s Professional Standards annual training requirements
Each video includes:
An introduction to a Wisconsin-grown specialty crop, family of crops or whole grain
Basic culinary preparation techniques such as hand chopping, pureeing or freezing
Creative menu incorporation ideas to get Wisconsin-grown fruits and vegetables onto the service line and salad bar
School nutrition requirements met by the featured fruit or vegetables
Appropriate use of “cosmetically imperfect seconds”
Short interviews between farmers and Child Nutrition Director who make farm to school happen!

13. WI Farm to Institution Procurement Strategy
A project that aligns the institutional demand and local supply of five target products.
Project partners: DATCP, CIAS, REAP, CESA Purchasing, Mutch Better Foods LLC

14. What will we gain from this project?
DATA -- supply and demand data including price, volume, specific uses, etc.
RESEARCH -- can we align the demand with the supply to create an optimal environment where institutions can afford the products and farmers are being paid a fair price?
SUPPLY CHAIN DEVELOPMENT -- new product development, better alignment of local products with institutional specifications, connections to new WI producers and processors
COMBINED PURCHASING POWER -- schools will work with hospitals, universities, etc. to take advantage of their combined purchasing power
THE LOCAL CHOICE BECOMES THE EASY CHOICE -- WI options available through traditional distribution systems

15. Inside scoop: REAP and Madison Metro
MMSD’s experience with the fresh produce supply chain - Broccoli and Carrots
Working with Loffredo Produce
Used a Request for Information process to identify produce growers - allows food service to plan local items for menus in advance, allows farms to plant in advance
Insights:
Food service ordering timelines change, as compared to conventional produce
Produce company systems need to be tweaked for local produce
There is potential for Loffredo to supply other districts with produce from MMSD’s local growers!

16. Inside scoop: What are our Values?
McCain Factory visit
What qualifies as “local”
Drilling down on and challenging our definition of Farm to School
What types of products are we comfortable promoting, where do we draw lines, where are our priorities?
Miles?
Growing practices?
Transparency?
Fair prices to farms? To workers?
Food additives / fried products?

17. How can YOU participate?
Ask broadline distributors that you work with about these products. Do your districts purchase from V. Marchese? Loffredo Produce? Gordon Food Service? Request local products!
Share your interest in these products with the project team - do you know institutions that may be interested in purchasing?
Help identify growers and/or aggregators around the state - with suggested producers.
Next event: Midwest Food Service Expo, March Encourage potential stakeholders (growers, distributors, processors, food service directors) to attend!

18. Gardens

20. Wisconsin School Garden Network
Funded by UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health from the Wisconsin Partnership Program
Develop 5 regional hubs to continue youth garden training and technical assistance
Over 5 years, 2,000 educators will be trained to provide garden-based education to over 90,000 Wisconsin children

22. USDA Farm to School Grant Updates
The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction continues to work on the USDA Farm to School Grant funded project to increase the amount of traditional and local foods served through child nutrition programs by providing targeted technical assistance. This includes trainings at each of the Bureau of Indian Education schools in Wisconsin, including topics such as recipe development, menu analysis, using traditional foods, maximizing USDA Foods purchases and the DoD Fresh Program, establishing and maintaining school gardens, and competitive procurement of local foods.

23. Questions & Visioning
How to move forward with farm to school and farm to early care and education in Wisconsin

24. Where are we going?
Promote children’s health by providing fresh, healthy and minimally-processed foods in schools and supporting the development of healthy eating habits
Strengthen children’s and communities’ knowledge about, and attitudes toward agriculture, food, nutrition, and the environment.
Strengthen local economies by expanding markets for Wisconsin’s agricultural producers and food entrepreneurs

25. This may be a tool, resource, network, funding, information etc.
How do we move forward?
Group Discussion
What is the one, biggest thing you need to help move farm to school forward for you?
This may be a tool, resource, network, funding, information etc.

26. Questions?

27. WI F2S Steering Committee & Partners
Beth Hanna
Outreach Manager
Community GroundWorks
Vanessa Herald
Farm to Institution Outreach Specialist
Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems
UW-Madison
Allison Pfaff
Nutrition Program Consultant
WI Department of Public Instruction - School Nutrition Team
Natasha Smith
Farm to School Program Director
REAP Food Group
Our future goal is to create a hub for all farm to school resources on a neutral domain of