In the fall of 2023, Feed Our Future (FOF) and Ohio Schools Council (OSC) conducted farm to school listening sessions. The listening sessions collected the perspectives of school nutrition professionals (SNPs) on local food purchasing. The insights gained from a pre-event survey and in-person listening sessions helped inform farm to school efforts in Northeast Ohio.
Using what we learned from the sessions, we created recommendations to address the farm to school needs of school nutrition professionals. Each quarterly newsletter, we will share the work we are doing to address our recommendations:
- Recommendation One: Create a professional development day for school food nutrition staff to learn knife skills and understand and apply quality control measures in their kitchen.
- Solution One: Launching Local: Farm to School Guide which is a no-cost, self-paced online course that teaches school nutrition staff knife skills, quality control measures, speed-scratch and scratch-cooking techniques, how to build a better breakfast and much more.
- Solution Two: Develop an OSC/Feed Our Future PD Day for all food service staff, Fresh Perspectives: Local Food and Inspired Learning for School Food Service Staff that will be held on June 18, 2025, from 8:00 am to 2:30 pm at Garfield Community Learning Center, Akron, Ohio. Click HERE for more information and to register.
- Recommendation Two: Explore options to expand the awareness of our Harvest of the Month program.
- Solution: Feed Our Future has partnered with The Ohio Department of Education and Workforce to implement a statewide Harvest of the Month campaign.
- Recommendation Three: Explore the possibility of a custom Harvest of the Month program and a more robust Harvest of the Month program.
- Solution: With our partnership with ODEW, we will be expanding our Harvest of the Month program by 10 additional food items. The goal of this programming is to expand Harvest of the Month items across the tray and create awareness about the Harvest of the Month program statewide.
- Recommendation Four: Explore opportunities to support youth involvement in recipe development.
- Solution: With funding from the 2024 Patrick Leahy Farm to School grant, Feed Our Future is implementing the Food Leaders Alliance. This is a youth ambassador program where students in 6-8th grade will be food leaders and advocates in their schools. Food Leaders are tasked with making changes in their school cafeterias.
- Recommendation Five: The Spice Field Kitchen Curriculum: Connect students with in-season food through fun, and impactful course lessons. (It’s FREE!)
- Sign up for the Spice Field Kitchen Curriculum here.
To read the full FOF/OSC Listening Session Report click here.