Farm to Early Care Webinar Series Part Four: How to purchase local foods for your Early Care setting

Join us for part four of our four-part Farm to Early Care webinar series, designed to empower anyone working in an early care and education setting to purchase fresh locally-grown foods, incorporate food- and farming-themed lessons into the classroom, and engage parents and caregivers in Farm to Early Care activities. Farm to Early Care programs are good for kids, good for farmers and good for communities. 

Part Four: How to purchase local foods for your Early Care setting

Watch Part Four
In this webinar, we will get into the details of where and how to purchase local foods to serve in your Early Care meals, sharing example case studies from around the state. Options range from purchasing through a food hub or mainline distributor, buying directly from farmers, using a third party processor as a middle step, collective purchasing with other Early Care providers and more! We will discuss how other Early Care settings have made local purchasing work for them, give advice on evaluating what might work in your setting, and share resources to help you make connections with your local growers. Guest speakers will include Emily Paul from The Good Acre Food Hub and partners from Early Care settings around Minnesota. Learn more and watch Part Four!

Learn more and watch Parts One, Two and Three of our series!

Farm to Early Care Webinar Series Part One: Nutrition Staff Training

Tuesday, June 13 @ 10:00 am CDT
This webinar will give Early Care nutrition staff the background they need on what Farm to Early Care is, how it benefits kids, farmers and communities, and the huge role kitchen staff play in making these programs successful. We will provide training on our Farm to Head Start model and share our free resources so kitchen staff can get started serving locally grown foods in their own kitchens, and using Farm to Early Care strategies to help them meet the new CACFP guidelines coming into effect this fall. Special guest speaker and Head Start Nutrition Services Coordinator Haley Anderson will share her own experience participating in a successful Farm to Head Start program in St. Cloud, MN. Learn more and watch the webinar!

Farm to Early Care Webinar Series Part Two: Doing it Right! Best Practices for CACFP Compliance and On-Farm Food Safety Assessment

Tuesday, June 20th @ 10:00 am CDT
Many of our Early Care partners are excited to start serving locally grown fruits and vegetables from farmers in their communities, but they want to make sure they are following the rules for their CACFP food program and best practices to make sure the food is as safe as possible for the kids in their program. Join us for this webinar to hear from Molly Butala from the MN Department of Education on how local procurement can fit into the CACFP program and help meet new CACFP requirements coming into effect this fall (it’s also now listed as a CACFP best practice!) and from U of MN Extension’s Annalisa Hultberg on what on-farm food safety practices Early Care staff should look for when deciding which farmers to purchase from. We are excited to have expert speakers to talk about the issues we hear Early Care partners ask about most often! Learn more and watch the webinar.

Farm to Early Care Webinar Series Part Three: Teaching Staff Training

Tuesday, June 27 at 10:00 am CDT
This webinar will give Early Care teaching staff the background they need on what Farm to Early Care is, how it benefits kids, farmers and communities, and how experiential Farm to Early Care activities can fit easily into their regular classroom routines. We will provide training on our Farm to Head Start model and share our free resources so teaching staff can get started with Farm to Early Care classroom activities right away. Special guest speaker and Head Start teacher Barika Davis will share her own experience participating in a successful Farm to Head Start program in St. Cloud, MN. Learn more and watch the webinar!

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