Hands-on Tools for Local Foods in Schools
National Farm to Cafeteria Conference
March 21, 2009
Session Description
Colleen Matts will present the new Michigan Farm to School website and “Purchasing
Michigan Products: A Step-By-Step Guide” for school food service directors to get local
foods into cafeterias. She will lead participants through the Guide’s steps and tools,
including forms for competitive bidding.
Lynn Mader will share the “step by step approach” and the University of Minnesota’s on-
line farm to school toolkit. A resource for school food service directors to use local foods in
the cafeteria, this toolkit includes menu items, recipes, newsletter articles, and point of sale
materials for featured, seasonal foods available in Minnesota.
Sara van Offelen will present the “Go Wild Curriculum” for the Minnesota Nutrition
Education Program in elementary schools. With classroom and cafeteria components, “Go
Wild” features local fruits, vegetables and whole grains in fun ways that capitalize on
children’s innate interest in their natural environment, native animals, and regional
experiences.
Objectives
After this presentation, attendees will be able to:
• Develop a purchasing system to simplify the purchase of local foods
• Follow a simple, step by step process to begin a farm to school effort in
the cafeteria and access recipes, promotional materials, and message
resources online
• Integrate local foods messages into traditional nutrition education
programs offered at their schools.
Small Group Work
After the hands-on tools are presented, we will break into small groups to practice using
the tools in a case study. Participants will be asked to join in one of three small groups in
which the tools and resources will be put to use, and then report back to the larger group.
Small groups will focus on the following topics:
• Purchasing local products
• Cafeteria local foods promotion
• Using “Go Wild” in the classroom
Contact
Colleen Matts Sara VanOffelen
Lynn Mader Farm to School Specialist Extension Educator
Farm to School C.S. Mott Group for University of Minnesota
Center for Family Development
University of Minnesota Sustainable Food Systems Extension
Extension Michigan State University Moorhead Regional Office
612-708-8635 517-432-0310 218-236-2007
made0036@umn.edu matts@msu.edu vanof001@umn.edu
mn-farmtoschool.umn.edu www.mifarmtoschool.msu.edu http://www.extension.umn.edu/
Nutrition/GoWild.html