Happy Holidays!


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As the farm to school movement grows, this newsletter highlights pivotal policies, news, publications, and events. Please contact us if you have any comments or suggestions.

Spotlight

Going the Distance and Shortening It, From Farm to Cafeteria

MARCH 19-21, 2009 in Portland Oregon

Register early for the 4th National Farm to Cafeteria Conference in Portland, Oregon from March 19-21st. Don't miss this opportunity to learn from and network with hundreds from across the country working on getting local food onto every table. Registration will be open in early 2009. Please check www.farmtocafeteriaconference.com for updates.

Join us for field trips to local farms, school lunchrooms and processing facilities; short courses covering topics such as grant writing and research and evaluation; an open space session; 32 workshops on issues such as federal and state policy, experiential education, sustainability and economic development and sessions geared towards youth, producers, and food service providers. All food will be organic or sustainably produced and locally sourced whenever possible.

Youth and limited resource farmer scholarships will be available. Please contact your Regional Lead Agency for more information.

Featured Profile

If you are looking for great reading over the holidays, check out some of these new resources:

Hope: Greenhorns Guidebook, a free resource for young farmers.

Saved by the Lunch Bell: As Economy Sinks, School Nutrition Program Participation Rises, a School Nutrition Association report on overall participation in the National School Lunch Program and Breakfast Program.

Nutrition Standards and Meal Requirements for National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs: Phase I, Proposed Approaches for Recommending Revisions, from the Institute of Medicine. This is a technical report detailing the criteria and scientific background that the committee plans to use to redesign the meal pattern and nutrition standards for school meals.

Coming Soon

Real Food Is...video contest for youth

Win $1,000 to tell it like it is.

Create a short video that completes the phrase "Real Food is..." and you can win $1,000 for your school food project.

THE CHALLENGE
Produce a 30 second to 3 minute video that informs, inspires, and encourages student advocacy to restore connections to community, food, land, and place through Farm to Cafeteria programs. Think about:

1. What does real food mean to you?
2. How does what we eat affect our culture, health, economy, or environment?
3. Make the case for why your cafeteria should start or continue buying from local farmers.

THE PRIZE
• Two winners, one k-12 video and one college video entry, will receive $1,000 for their cafeteria food project;
• One representative from each winning video entry and a select chaperone win an all expense paid trip (registration, travel, and lodging) to the 4th National Farm to Cafeteria Conference in Portland, Oregon March 19-21st, 2009.

THE TIMELINE
• SUBMISSION DEADLINE – February 8, 2009. Entries will start being accepted at 12:00AM January 1, 2009.
• The winning videos will be announced on February 17th, 2009.

THE DETAILS
• This contest is open to K-12 and college students.
• Videos can be any style: fiction or documentary, animated or live action.
• Videos must have English subtitles if not in English.

HOW TO ENTER
1. Make your video!
2. Create a YouTube account if you don't already have one. You can use a parent's account if you are under 18, or create your own account with your own email address. Get your parent's permission before setting up your account.
3. Upload your video to the Farm to School YouTube Channel.
4. Email us at deb@farmtoschool.org and let us know that you've entered the contest along with the url for the video. Please send us your name, age, and the name of the YouTube account holder.

**Sponsored by Action for Healthy Kids**

Full contest rules and call out video will debut in early January. Stay Tuned!

This Month's News

Farm to School: Students eating fresh produce grown locally

by Autumn Grooms. LaCrosse Tribune.

The Viroqua School District has developed a program that channels locally grown fruits and vegetables into the cafeterias. Farm to School started this year in Viroqua and is part of a rising trend nationwide. The Wisconsin State AmeriCorps, meanwhile, awarded Vernon and Crawford counties resources to start Farm to School programs. Read the entire article.

What's for lunch? Less junk

by Christian Gaston. Pamplin Media Group.

Kristy Obbink, director of nutrition services at PPS, says that the district’s Harvest of the Month and Local Lunch programs, which put farm-fresh produce on cafeteria plates twice a month, has her questioning the assumption that kids won’t eat healthy foods. It turns out students kind of like parsnips. Read the entire article.

New broccoli fans keen for green

byMatt Neznanski. Gazette-Times.

How do you know you’ve got great broccoli? Elementary school children come back for seconds. Or thirds. Wednesday’s effort was the third tasting table set up by the Corvallis Environmental Center’s Farm to School program, designed to increase the amount of locally grown foods served in school cafeterias. Read the entire article.

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