We are pleased to announce that the LSU AgCenter is hosting its third annual conference dedicated to farm to school initiatives on October 10 at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. This year's conference features key note speaker Chef Ann Cooper, known as the "Renegade Lunch Lady," who will provide a cornucopia of knowledge about the link between healthy school lunches and overall health and wellness of our developing youth.

Our newly expanded program includes three tracks focusing on sourcing, growing, and learning.  These tracks will be filled to the brim with farm to school information and resources on topics such as menu production, appropriate plant selection, taste tests, virtual farm tours, food safety, and local produce curriculum, so regardless whether you are a farmer, distributor, teacher, student, child nutrition director, or volunteer, there will be something here for you!

This year's program also includes a special Meet the Buyers event the evening before the conference!  This is a free event in which local farmers will have the opportunity to connect with various food distributors, child nutrition directors, and food hubs in a relaxed face-to-face setting prior to the conference. It will be a wonderful networking opportunity that you do not want to miss!

We will also recognize our Champions for Change during the conference program. These are individuals who have made a significant impact on the farm to school movement here in Louisiana. If you would like to nominate yourself or someone who you believe has made a positive change in the farm to school movement, you can do so here:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LAF2SChampion.

For more information about the Louisiana Farm to School Conference or to register, please visit our event page:  http://LAF2SC2018.eventbrite.com.  If you have any questions, please contact Sydney Melhado at smelhado@agcenter.lsu.edu or 225-578-1037