Michigan Media Coverage

Springport students celebrate locally grown food by Shepker. Jackson Citizen Patriot. Published 11/08/2008.
Springport students know the sources of their food, from the grain fields that dot the rural landscape to the poultry and livestock they raise in the schoolyard. Read the entire article.

Michigan Farm to School Web site. NBC25. Published 10/31/2008.
A new state Web site is helping match schools up with local food producers to help boost Michigan's economy and encourage students to eat healthier. Read the entire article.

Michigan Farm to School Web site. TV 7. Published 10/31/2008.
The idea of the Michigan Farm to School Web site is to create an easy resource for schools to plan local agriculture related projects. Projects like helping schools get local food for school meals programs, designing fundraisers that involve local agricultural products, and creating things like school gardens, planning farmer visits to school classrooms and cafeterias, and school field trips to local farms. Read the entire article.

Healthy Fuel: GTACS program provides kids with nutritious snacks by Carol South. Traverse City - Record Eagle. Published 10/21/2008.
Determined to instill life lessons, the Life Balance Initiative has been branching out. The Grand Traverse Area Catholic Schools program was launched a year ago to bring healthy hot lunches to the four schools in the system. Processed, high sodium, high fat and packaged food gave way to made-from-scratch offerings that included local produce, meat and milk. Read the entire article.

Bipartisan plan will boost local growers' sales, keep children healthy. Michigan House Democrats. Published 09/18/2008.
State Representatives Kathy Angerer (D-Dundee) and Kate Ebli (D-Monroe) voted to pass a bipartisan plan Wednesday to create farm-to-school initiatives that will help make fresh, locally grown foods available in school cafeterias. Read the entire article.

House passes farm-to-school bill. The Bay City Times. Published 09/17/2008.
The Michigan House on Tuesday passed a bipartisan plan co-sponsored by State Rep. Jeff Mayes, D-Bay City, to create farm-to-school initiatives that would help make fresh, locally grown foods available in school cafeterias. Read the entire article.

Hansen effort links local farms to schools. Michigan House Republicans. Published 09/17/2008.
Local school children will be able to eat healthy and learn where their food comes from, all while boosting the area economy if a package of bills approved Tuesday by the House becomes law, announced state Rep. Goeff Hansen. The House sent House Bill 6366 to the Senate, a measure sponsored by Hansen to expand the school bidding process so more local producers can provide food to area districts. The House also approved a Hansen resolution designating Sept. 18, 2008 as Buy Fresh, Buy Local, Select Michigan Day in support of the Farm-to-School package, which includes HBs 6365-68. Read the entire article.

Brown Votes for Plan to Increase Fresh, Locally Grown Food in Schools. Michigan House Democrats. Published 09/16/2008.
House passes bipartisan initiatives to boost growers' sales, keep kids healthy State Representative Terry Brown (D-Pigeon) today voted for a bipartisan plan to create farm-to-school initiatives that will help make fresh, locally grown foods available in school cafeterias. Read the entire article.

Farm to School Meeting at Lakeview Middle School by Brigette Leach. Battle Creek Enquirer. Published 08/05/2008.
Come prepared to learn about how you can become involved in placing more Michigan grown food on school menus. We plan to make sure food service directors are aware of all the Michigan grown fruits and vegetables available to them and during what seasons, and help farmers learn how to get their products into local schools and what food service directors need. Read the entire article.

Schools, farmers benefit from push to 'buy local' by Jackie Smith. The Dexter Leader. Published 07/31/2008.
The movement for consumers to buy produce from local farms has extended far into today's communities, feeding even the youngest of buyers in neighborhood schools.vThe Chelsea School District has been piloting a farm-to-school project over the past year with full anticipation of its continuation this fall, said Food Service Director Karen Carty. "We have found that utilizing local foods not only helps the food budget, but also provides us with fresher-tasting, more nutritious products overall," Carty said. "We are proud to support our local farmers and have this partnership to be very beneficial." Read the entire article.

Students plant seed for idea by Eric Gaertner. The Muskegon Chronicle. Published 06/15/2008.
The high school students in Kyle Fiebig's agri-science projects class recently played the role of farmer in the proposed program, except on a much smaller scale. Over a few weeks near the end of the school year, the students grew a couple varieties of lettuce that were fed to staff and students for lunch. Grown in the school's greenhouse, the lettuce was offered to 2,000 to 3,000 students during six lunch sessions. "The overall response was they want it back," Fiebig said. "I like the idea that the lettuce traveled all of 600 feet." Read the entire article.

Students plant seed for idea by Eric Gaertner. The Muskegon Chronicle. Published 06/15/2008.
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Food for thought by Eric Gaertner. The Muskegon Chronicle. Published 06/14/2008.
The days of school lunch lines filled with imported food offerings and food loaded with trans fat could be numbered. A county wide proposal that is just beginning to be thoroughly evaluated would have local schools saying goodbye to well-traveled carrots and greasy fries and hello to fresh, locally grown fruits, vegetables and meats that are most likely organic in nature. Read the entire article.

Food for thought by Eric Gaertner. The Muskegon Chronicle. Published 06/14/2008.
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Keeping Up with the Jones, Tastefully by Diane Conners. Great Lakes Bulletin News Service. Published 06/09/2008.
Thirty schools in northwest Lower Michigan now include locally grown fresh food in their menus—and soaring sales indicate students are glad to avoid typical cafeteria fare. Read the entire article.

Keeping Up with the Jones, Tastefully by Diane Conners. Michigan Land Use Institute. Published 06/09/2008.
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Cook's Corner: Taste The Local Difference. The Traverse City Record-Eagle. Published 06/02/2008.
The Taste the Local Difference Web site, www.localdifference.org, has also been updated with all the search options combined into one step; a local food exchange featuring "land wanted" or "farmer wanted" listings, farm to school plans, healthy eating and more. Read the entire article.

Gonzales Proposes Plan to Bring Fresher Foods into Local Schools by Evan. On Truth and Exploration. Published 04/22/2008.
State Representative Lee Gonzales (D-Flint Township) today introduced House Bill 5967, a bill that would make it easier for school districts to purchase food from local farmers for school lunch programs, bringing more fresh fruits and vegetables into our cafeterias and boosting the local economy. Gonzales' plan would streamline the bidding process for school food administrators by increasing schools' small purchase threshold (SPT) for food procurement to $100,000, up from $19,650. Read the entire article.

Farm-to-School Success Stirring State Action by Diane Conners. Great Lakes Bulletin News Service. Published 04/21/2008.
In separate steps that are aimed at bolstering the state’s burgeoning “farm to school” movement, a Michigan legislator and the state agricultural commission are each trying to make it easier for schools to serve more fresh, locally grown foods in their student cafeterias. Read the entire article.

Farm-to-School Success Stirring State Action by Diane Conners. Michigan Land Use Institute. Published 04/21/2008.
Lawmakers, ag commission may make it easier to put local food on students’ plates Read the entire article.

Earth Day offers a world of good by Christa Buchanan. C & G News. Published 04/16/2008.
To commemorate Earth Day, April 22, the Capuchin Soup Kitchen and its Earth Works urban garden ministry are holding a dinner event featuring fresh, seasonal food and presentations on the importance of local foods and maintaining a connection to the environment. Read the entire article.

Tools for Change – One Letter Leads to Legislation by Beth Collins. Lunch Lessons. Published 04/11/2008.
What a few choice words can do to stimulate policy that translates into real change through a local non-profit's e-newsletter after the local paper wouldn't publish it! Read the entire article.

Fresh from farm: Change state rules to help school menus. Battle Creek Enquirer. Published 03/28/2008.
The Michigan Land Use Institute says schools that have adopted its farm-to-school program have seen increases in meal participation. A new scratch-cooking effort utilizing many local farm products at Glen Lake Schools has boosted lunch participation by 50 percent in one year, according to the institute, and the number of kids eating breakfast at Frankfort-Elberta Schools has nearly doubled with the school-to-farm effort. Offering more fresh, local produce in school meals is healthier for students while also emphasizing the connection with food grown in their own communities. Read the entire article.

N.W. Michigan Growers, Educators Pack Farm-to-School Conference by Patty Cantrell. Great Lakes Bulletin News Service. Published 03/19/2008.
More than 300 people attended a historic conference in Traverse City, Michigan last week aimed at helping school administrators, food service workers, teachers, and students prepare and serve fresher, healthier food at schools and camps. Read the entire article.

N.W. Michigan Growers, Educators Pack Farm-to-School Conference by Patty Cantrell. Michigan Land Use Institute. Published 03/19/2008.
Hundreds share tips, make plans to put local food on students’ plates Read the entire article.

State Law Slows Farm-to-School Progress by Beth Collins. Great Lakes Bulletin News Service. Published 03/16/2008.
Here we were, 330 of the region’s professionals in school education, nutrition, and health, working to nudge fresh, wholesome local food into the center of the plate in our schools’ dining rooms. But what did we find, in the course of our conversations, is perhaps the greatest obstacle to that important goal? Our own state government. Read the entire article.

State Law Slows Farm-to-School Progress by Beth Collins. Michigan Land Use Institute. Published 03/16/2008.
Sales limit keeps local food off students' plates Read the entire article.

Farm-to-school programs keep food supply local -- with happy results by Eartha Jane Melzer. Michigan Messenger. Published 02/21/2008.
Now, as school cafeterias everywhere destroy what remains of the recalled meat and rearrange their menus, a growing farm-to-school movement seeks to restore the regional agricultural bonds that once linked consumers to farmers in their local communities. Read the entire article.

Prosperous Farms, Well-Fed Kids by Diane Conners. Great Lakes Bulletin News Service. Published 02/07/2008.
More than 30 schools in the region are now serving about a dozen local farm products, from apples to winter squash. Most schools worked with the Michigan Land Use Institute to figure out how to add local farm products to their cafeterias and bring first-hand experiences with farms to their classrooms. Schools embracing local foods have seen powerful results. Frankfort-Elberta students are eating five times as many apples since the school replaced the bland apples it was serving—picked for their tolerance of long distance shipping, not taste—with juicy, local varieties. A Benzie County Central elementary school ditched its traditional candy sale and raised $6,000 in one day by selling local farm products instead. Read the entire article.

Prosperous Farms, Well-Fed Kids by Diane Conners. Michigan Land Use Institute. Published 02/07/2008.
Conference to share schools’ local-food success secrets Read the entire article.

(Fresh) Food Fight by Jessica A. Knoblauch. EJ Magazine. Published 00/01/2008.
Farm to school may be a recipe for success, but barriers prevent these programs from taking hold. Read the entire article.

Students focus on healthy eating by Cymbre Foster. Traverse City Record-Eagle. Published 11/27/2007.
Amy White was looking for a way to change what kids ate at Glen Lake Community Schools without making the students feel forced to do it. Senior Abbie Christiansen said she's not only learned a lot about food, but about how to take what she's learned and make changes at a grassroots level. "I've always been interested in healthy foods but I've also learned about the kinds of things we can do at our school to be part of the farm-to-school movement and getting healthier food into our school, which is a nice option to have after school," said the 18-year-old. Read the entire article.

Fresh, Local Produce for Kids a Win-Win-Win. The Ann Arbor News. Published 09/28/2007.
Each Friday, elementary and middle schools students in the Ann Arbor school district are served fruits and vegetables from local farms, with signs telling them the names of the farms that grew the produce. Read the entire article.

Locally Grown Fruits, Veggies a Hit by David Jesse. The Ann Arbor News. Published 09/24/2007.
Student after student found room for the fresh fruit, cleaning out each serving tray almost as soon as it came out of the kitchen. Read the entire article.

Kids get fresh in the lunchroom - fruits and veggies that is by David Jesse. The Ann Arbor News. Published 09/24/2007.
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Way Better than Summer School! by Diane Conners. Michigan Land Use Institute. Published 12/02/2006.
Students grow or pick, then sell and donate fresh produce Read the entire article.

Grow Michigan by Christopher Bedford. Detroit Free Press. Published 11/22/2006.
Newspaper columnist Erma Bombeck once observed: "Thanksgiving dinners take 18 hours to prepare and 12 minutes to consume -- the length of most televised football half times." This Thanksgiving, perhaps, the food will get a little more attention than the Detroit-Miami game, given the Lions' record. But, for the most part, food is an invisible force in Michigan. It is taken for granted. Its source is unknown. Read the entire article.

Farm Raisers Make Cents for Schools by Diane Conners. Great Lakes Bulletin News Service. Published 08/28/2006.
"Sporting a cap that said “Born to Farm,” Tom Cooper nursed a cup of coffee as 26 fourth graders from nearby Central Lake Elementary School hopped off their buses and scrambled into the pole building where his family turns cherries into specialty jams, salsas, and fruit butters." Read the entire article.

'Farm Raisers' Make Cents for Schools by Diane Conners. Michigan Land Use Institute. Published 08/28/2006.
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Farm Fresh School Lunches Can Cost More, but Worth It by Diane Conners. Michigan Land Use Institute. Published 03/24/2006.
Local food sells itself Read the entire article.

Congress Could Put More Local Food Into Schools by Diane Conners. Great Lakes Bulletin News Service. Published 01/10/2005.
"The kids rave about the taste. Local farmer Mark Doherty is making sales in a new market. And cooks in this northern Michigan school district are pleased to be serving his fresh, bursting-with-flavor apples to students in the lunch line." Read the entire article.

Congress Could Put More Local Food Into Schools by Diane Conners. Michigan Land Use Institute. Published 01/10/2005.
Bipartisan flavor works in program’s favor Read the entire article.

Survey: Schools Want More Fresh Food by Diane Conners. Michigan Land Use Institute. Published 11/09/2004.
Buying local could reduce youth obesity, grow farm economy Read the entire article.

Nutrition Plays Key Role in Community Viability by Lisa Soloman. Nutrition Spot Light. Published 04/30/2003.
Read the entire article.