Vital Communities

Farm to School Media Coverage

sam — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 03:17:34 +0000

Here are some stories about farm to school programs and related information worth reading this week:

Five School Programs Feeding America’s Children

‘Lunch Ladies’ Criticize how CPS Updated School Food

Area Farmers, Schools Plant Seeds of Support

Role of Local Food Systems in Farm Policy is Growing

Vegetables From Carmel Valley School’s Garden a Hit with Students

Clean, Green and Healthy Schools: Webinar Series

sam — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 03:10:29 +0000

The EPA, region 8 has been hosting a Clean, Green and Healthy Schools webinar series, every Wednesday for six weeks beginning January 18, at 5:30 EST. The series is designed for schools serving tribal communities but is open to ALL school administrators, risk manager, educators, healthy and safety coordinators, school health professionals, environmental protection personnel and EPA personnel to ensure that schools are clean, green and healthy. You many attend one or more presentations in the webinar series for free.

Remaining topics:

Feb 1: Integrated Pest Management and Green Cleaning

Feb 8: Recycling, Composting and Gardening

Feb 15: Indoor Air

Feb 22: Energy and Water Conservation

Farm to School Programs

sam — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:58:48 +0000

Enticing kids to try fresh, local food in school lunchrooms!

An example from Wisconsin here.

An introductory guide for school staff, teachers and farmers, courtesy of farm to school in Ohio here.

Nutrition, Delicious, Wisconsin: Connecting Nutritious Education and Healthy Foods

sam — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:55:48 +0000

The Nutritious, Delicious, Wisconsin [NDW] curriculum is a thematic unit of instruction that uses local foods to teach nutrition concepts to elementary students. NDW focuses on Wisconsin foods with a connection to Wisconsin’s history, culture and people. The primary goal of the curriculum is to broaden to food experiences of WI students.

Find the guide online [...]

FoodCorps Recruitment

sam — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:50:56 +0000

FoodCorps recruitment for year 2 is open — if you are able to assist with outreach by carrying or displaying materials [posters, postcards, etc.] to events, please contact Simone Hebrin at serve@foodcorps.org to get a packet of materials.

Applications are due March 25th, events will have to be in the next 2 months.

Healthy Breakfast-4-Kids Grant Program

sam — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:48:16 +0000

The Healthy Breakfast-4-Kids [HB4K] goal is to create and improve access to breakfast in schools nationwide as a means to lessen the huge negative impact of hungry children across our nation. In 2012, Food Family Farming Foundation [F3] and Walmart Foundation are partnering to gran 117 $2500 equipment grants to rural high needs schools for the purpose of implementing universal breakfast in the classroom programs. Grant awardees will be able to to order $2500 worth of food service small wares or equipments for establishing universal breakfast programs via an online order with our partner Tundra Specialities. As part of the program, F3 will create universal breakfast implementation resources, to be available to all schools via our program “The Lunch Box.”

More information here.

School Food Chefs, Round 2

sam — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:43:21 +0000

The Food Network’s hit competition show “Chopped” aired a successful episode featuring four passionate school cooks, who were able to discuss the work they do, showcase their cooking skills and compete for $10000.

This spring, the producers would like to air a similar episode, featuring cooks serving kids from elementary to high school age. Cooks should be able to discuss:

How they incorporate USDA commodity foods with scratch cooking into their lunch foods, while making food tasty/appealing

Salad bars/vegetable gardens

Culinary boot camps/classes attended

Work with outside chefs volunteering their time.

The show will film these cooks at their school, most likely at the end of February or early March; contestants must be available to film the episode in NYC on April 30th.

Diverse applicants of ages 25-55 can request referrals at anupama@farmtoschool.org.

Deadline: Feb 8th. Applications available here; mention it is for the “School Food episode.”

Cheshire County Commons Farm & Food Hub Proposed

sam — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:32:46 +0000

Cheshire County New Hampshire is looking to find businesses and organizations that focus on food, farming, or forestry that would be interested in starting or expanding to South West NH. The County is in the preliminary stages of determining if there is interest in the proposed Cheshire County Commons Farm and Food Hub.

Please contact the County if interested, or if you would like to be a part of future notifications, in which case please include a paragraph detailing your interest and what opportunities you see for your business/organization.

More information here.

Contact: Cheshire County Conservation District 603.756.2988 ext.116.

Call for Abstracts for Student Research Conference

sam — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:07:21 +0000

Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy is pleased to announce a call for abstracts for our annual Student Research Conference. The conference attracts students interested in any component of the interactions between food, the environment, nutrition, human well-being and society. Presentations may include thesis research, internships, independent studies or directed studies, capstone papers, case studies and/or in-depth papers written as part of coursework.

Submit an abstract by *5pm EST Feb. 3, 2012* to: http://goo.gl/Whlpa

More information: http://studentconference.nutrition.tufts.edu/index.html

VT Farm Disaster Relief Fund Providing New Funding for Feed

sam — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:03:35 +0000

The Vermont Community Foundation and the Vermont Agency of Agriculture announced that the Vermont Farm Disaster Relief Fund is accepting applications for a new grant round focused on providing funding for emergency feed purchases.

“As we anticipated, feed has now become an urgent need among Vermont farmers affected by Irene. Many farmers who thought they’d have enough feed for their animals are now discovering that their hay and corn was severely damaged by the flooding and are faced with the unexpected cost of having to buy feed,” says Chuck Ross, secretary of the Vermont Agency of Agriculture.

“Because of the current demand, available feed is more expensive,” says Ryan Torres, philanthropic advisor at the Vermont Community Foundation. “We have reserved funding to help farmers purchase feed to get them through the winter and we encourage those who are unable to buy feed to apply for assistance as soon as possible.”

Applications are now available on www.vtfloodresponse.org and will be due February 17. Checks will be mailed to selected farmers the first week in March. The fund will continue to hold grant rounds for emergency feed assistance as long as funding remains available. Farmers who sustained other losses or damages from the storm and have not received a grant from the fund are encouraged to contact Ryan Torres, philanthropic advisor at the Vermont Community Foundation, at 802-388-3355 ext. 289 or rtorres@vermontcf.org.

Press Release here.