Eastern Market Corporation IQF survey!
I hope you are reading your seed catalogs and planning this year's yummy garden with your students. LOTS of math and science applications in planning the garden.
LOTS of garden and education opportunities this time of year, so read up and don't miss out!
Many schools throughout the state of Michigan have school gardens or hope to start one. An extension of school garden programming is using the garden produce in the cafeteria. Several garden to cafeteria practitioners claim that their students eat more produce when it is sourced from the garden. In Michigan we have a number of schools that are using the produce grown in their gardens in their food programs, and many more that are interested in learning how to incorporate their fresh produce in school meals and snacks.
Next month, the MSU Center for Regional Food Systems is hosting an educational webinar with Michigan school partners and MSU Extension about starting and maintaining garden to cafeteria programs. The webinar will walk through practical and applicable steps of the Garden to Cafeteria: A Step-by-Step Guide and feature real examples from two school programs.
The two featured school programs are West Michigan Academy of Environmental Sciences in Grand Rapids and Detroit Public Schools. These schools will share their examples of how they organize and run their program, their challenges, lessons learned and success stories.
Other topics covered will highlight the contents of the Garden to Cafeteria guide. The webinar will walk participants through how to get started by understanding regulations, planning for food safety, assessing the current climate for this type of program and planning what to grow. The school representatives will draw on their experience from building community connections and local resources to support their efforts. One of the most important considerations in a sustainable garden to cafeteria program is the relationship with food service. The presenters will discuss some ideas for building this relationship and some options for communication and moving your produce into the school food program. Lastly, presenters will discuss options to keep your garden to cafeteria in operation for year after year through funding and sales.
Michigan State University Extension supports garden to cafeteria efforts around the state, to encourage healthy students and abundant educational opportunities.
Participants will learn from Michigan State University Extension staff and local experts presenting on a variety of topics including Starting a School Garden Team, Best Practices and Curriculum Connections, How to Run a School Garden, and Food Safety. Participants will also take part in several hands-on educational garden activities that they can then use with their students. Moreover, there will be many opportunities to network and brainstorm with other school garden leaders and MSU Extension staff.
Online registration closes at 11:59 p.m. on the February 16, 2016.
There will also be a Starting and Sustaining a School Garden workshop at the Tollgate Education Center and Farm located at 28115 Meadowbrook Road, Novi, MI 48377 on Friday, April 15, 2016. We will post more information and the registration website in next month's newsletter.
For more information about these workshops, or how your group can have a similar workshop at your location, contact Kristine Hahn, Community Food Systems Educator by phone at 248-802-4590 or by email at hahnk@anr.msu.edu.
It is the season for garden grants! Please see below for some newly opened opportunities.
The last date for online registration is February 16, 2016. Online registration closes at 11:59 p.m. on the February 16, 2016.
The National Farm to School Network offers scholarships to attend this summer's National Farm to Cafeteria Conference in Madison, Wisconsin. The window to apply for funds is now open, with a deadline of February 29th.
Hi. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Kirke Elsass. I need your help as I look for teachers in grades 6-12 to pilot garden-based science lessons specific to Michigan curriculum.
Over the last couple months, I've started creating a year's worth of science lessons using the middle school section of Michigan's K-12 science standards adopted this fall.
- and you still need to cover ecosystem content this year. Please check this set of lessons. If there are any you might be able to pilot, feel free to use them and let me know what worked or didn't and what adjustments you had to make.
If you are interested in piloting a lesson at some point this year, send me an email saying "I'm interested"<kirke.david@gmail.com>. That way I'll know it's OK to communicate with you more (such as offering to modify a lesson to your constraints or sending a reminder in the next couple months).
- and you still have content to cover this year that's not ecosystems. Please check this outline of units I plan to create. I have not completed all the lessons, but I would be happy to prioritize one for you. For example, I am now prioritizing cellular-level photosynthesis lessons so a high school biology teacher can pilot them. Check these lessons to get a sense of the form other lessons would take.
- please forward this email to science teachers you know. And feel free to check out the lessons and outline above. Though you might not use them yourself, I hope you'd find them interesting just the same!
Any and all feedback and suggestions will be greatly appreciated.