WEBINAR: Connecting Children With Local Foods and Farmers Through Summer Meal Programs

When the school year ends, children who depend on school meals can be left without easy access to balanced, nutritious meals. The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) fills the critical hunger gap during summer when school meals aren’t available and offers a critical opportunity to get the freshest, healthiest foods to the children who will benefit the most. When SFSP programs purchase local foods, farmers in the programs’ communities also have an opportunity to sell their products into this larger-scale market during the height of their growing season, keeping money circulating in the local economy at the same time. In this webinar, join summer meal experts who will share best practices and lessons learned from their experience piloting their own “Farm to Summer” initiatives, and learn about IATP’s report documenting the opportunities and challenges of Farm to Summer!

Register for the webinar! 

The webinar will be recorded and the recording will be sent to attendees and registrants. 

Presenters

Deborah Foye
Nutrition Services Coordinator
Nay Ah Shing/Pine Grove Schools

Deb has worked for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe for almost 28 years running their school food service programs.  About 11 years ago, she headed up the school gardens, and continues doing so. About six years ago, she was able to start a farm to school program purchasing local foods first through her vendors and finally directly through local farmers. She continues to strive to improve and increase connections with farmers.

Angela Richey, MPH, RD, SNS
Nutrition Services Supervisor
Roseville Area Schools

Angie is a School Nutrition Director with almost a decade of child nutrition experience under her belt. She has a passion for child and adolescent health, investing in local food systems and making the nutritious choice the easy choice to develop healthy eating habits for life. Angie is a dietitian who oversees two first-ring suburban districts of the Twin Cities in Minnesota.

Nikki Warner
Communications Director
The Good Acre

Nikki has been with The Good Acre since fall of 2016 and works to create mission focused content that is shared on social media, e-mail newsletters and The Good Acre’s own website. A key role for Nikki is to promote local farm produce, farmer news and seasonality to The Good Acre’s stakeholders which include wholesale buyers, farm share members and various partner organizations that work together to support the local food system.

Moderator

Erin McKee
Community Food Systems Program Director
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP)