Our winter campaign is here and we want to connect FARMERS with SCHOOL districts to feature local roots vegetables in their food service!
This can be:
Serving a taste test or sampling new root vegetables.
Feature root vegetables as part of a side dish and/or in a smaller percentage of your district meals,
Send home a recipe and featured root vegetable.
The goal is to make some new relationships, introduce nutritious local and seasonal roots and celebrate local agriculture and school lunches. When you serve local roots as part of this campaign, you will get:
One-on-one support to solicit and source root vegetables from a local farm. This can include delivery support.
Placemat activity sheet and crayons for participating schools,
Social media and promotion support, celebration, and cheering on!
We are here to support you in any capacity you would like in order to keep some farm to school in your lunch programs!
Reach out to Shannon at Shannon.raider@uconn.edu for support.
The National Farm to School Network awarded 30 food champions across the country, representing "nearly every role in the school food and farm to school ecosystem." These award is about "about recognizing the individuals who make farm to school work - day in and day out - and who have gone above and beyond this year, especially, to keep our kids and their families connected to community food systems."
We are proud and excited to celebrate two of these champions from Connecticut! Congratulations Lauren and Disha. Read more HERE about this recognition and the great work of these two local leaders!
Disha Patel - Food Justice Educator, Common Ground High School, New Haven
Lauren Little – Community Food Advocate , Hartford Area
News and Resources
Here are some articles and resources we are following...
Identifying and Countering White Supremacy Culture in the Food System
Sept 2020
This research centered on the question: How does white supremacy culture play out in the food insecurity and food access space in the United States? There is a link to a 15 minute podcast summarizing this research.
Schools Get Creative To Fight Student Vacation Hunger -
CT News Junkie, December 7, 2020
"Based on a special waiver issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), school districts in Connecticut will be able to offer free lunches to all students – even during the winter break.
