Thursday, December 5, 2024
WI F2S Survey - Thank You!
Thank you to all School Food Authorities (SFAs) who completed the Wisconsin Farm to School (F2S) Survey in October. Results of the survey will be available in February 2025 and will provide a better understanding of F2S activities happening in schools and the barriers to sustainable F2S programming. Prize incentives were available for those who completed the survey, congratulations to the winners!
Grand Prize, Rise Garden: St. Gregory the Great School (Milwaukee)
Admission to the August 2025 Cultivating Connections: A Wellness and F2S Summit: Dr. Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy, New Lisbon School District, Hortonville School District
F2S Swag Bag: Melrose Mindoro School District, Cameron School District, St. Paul Lutheran School (Sheboygan), Juda School District, Galesville-Ettrick Trempealeau School District, Kimberly Area School District, Slinger School District, Lighthouse Christian School, Mother of Good Counsel Grade School, St. Ann’s School (Stoughton), Clear Lake School District, Queen of the Apostles Parish, City School, Inc., River Valley School District, Greenfield School District, DeSoto Area School District, Chileda Institute, Inc., Bruce School District, Hustisford School District, Loyal School District.
Celebrate Wisconsin Chili Lunch!
Wisconsin Chili Lunch Day is Thursday, February 27, 2025, but schools and organizations are encouraged to celebrate any day during the month. This is an opportunity for K-12 schools, early care and education programs, hospitals, colleges and more to cook and serve a chili recipe featuring local foods. Prepare your chili with locally grown and produced ingredients. Local meats, vegetables, cheese, and yogurt are some foods to consider using. Try including other local foods on the entire lunch tray, in addition to the chili.
The DPI Farm to School (F2S) team also has a brand-new resource called, “Cooking with Dried Beans In a Nutshell”. Learn how Wisconsin grown beans can be prepared and added to your favorite chili recipe!
Register Here and help highlight the amazing local foods available in our state by participating in the 2025 Wisconsin Chili Lunch!
Around the World in 80 Trays- Registration Now Open!
Join the School Nutrition Team and schools/districts around the state on a culinary adventure to celebrate the diverse cultures of Wisconsin students! The annual Around the World in 80 Trays event will take place on January 20-24, 2025, and encourages schools to serve a globally inspired dish(es) to students during that week. Take the Pledge to help us reach our goal of 80 SFAs participating! Find recipes in the Around the World in 80 Trays Cookbook to feature local products during the week. Use Wisconsin-raised bison in Bison Nachos, locally grown wild rice in Butternut Squash and Wild Rice Soup, or local carrots in a Vietnamese Carrot Salad. Yum!
Summit Save the Date and Vendor Show Registration
The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction-School Nutrition Team is excited to announce Cultivating Connections: A Wellness and Farm to School Summit. Conference attendee registration will be available in March of 2025.
Who: Anyone interested in school wellness and farm to school, such as school wellness leaders, school nutrition staff, farmers, educators, and farm to school advocates.
What: Two-day summit on innovative strategies that promote student health and knowledge of local food systems through educator engagement, policy implementation, and partnership opportunities.
When: August 5 and 6, 2025
Where: Chula Vista Resort, Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin
Local Foods Vendor Show: A local foods vendor show will take place August 5 from 1-4 PM. Registration for Vendors is open! Please share with any farmers, producers, or aggregators that sell to your programs!
Preparing The Garden for Winter
Preparing the garden for winter is essential to protecting plants, improving soil health, and ensuring a thriving garden next year. Harvest any remaining crops by picking the last of your vegetables before frost. Clean up the garden by removing dead plants or diseased plants to prevent pests and diseases from overwintering and add healthy plant material to the compost pile. Remove weeds to prevent them from seeding and spreading in spring. If the soil is compacted, aerate the soil which can improve water and nutrient absorption and add lime to manage the soil pH level for increased plant production. The benefits of adding lime will persist for years from different lime types such as calcite, calcium carbonate, dolomite, pelleted, liquid, ground eggshells, or residue from drinking water treatment plants. Plant a cover crop by sowing winter rye, wheat, or clover to prevent soil erosion and improve soil fertility. After the cover crop is established, add a layer of mulch like straw, leaves, or wood chips or spread a layer of compost to enrich the soil over winter and assist in insulating the soil with the freeze-thaw cycles.
During the winter months, the microbes and other organisms continue to break down organic matter and cycle nutrients at a significantly slower pace as snow acts as insulation assisting in the underground activity process. Winterize the garden tools by cleaning and sharpening them to keep them in good condition. Protect tools from rust by storing them in a dry place and drain and store hoses to prevent freezing and cracking. Shut off and drain irrigation systems to prevent freezing and inspect, repair, and reinforce structures like trellises, fences, and raised beds. Before the ground freezes, water trees and shrubs well to keep roots hydrated. This preparation ensures your garden weathers the winter and starts strong in spring!
Farm Highlight-Blaser’s Acres Farm
Blaser's Acres started in 1998 in Green Bay Wisconsin by Chris Blaser with a rototiller and an acre of land. The farm grew to hundreds of acres of agricultural products and produce. Some of the farm fresh products and produce are green beans, pickles, cucumbers, acorn squash, rhubarb, pumpkins, apples, sunflowers, tomatoes, sweet corn, onions, kohlrabi, asparagus, sweet snap peas, lettuce, cantaloupe, cauliflower, blueberries, cherries, raspberries, leeks, honey dew melons, flowers, and maple syrup. Blaser’s Acres incorporates roadside stands, family friendly seasonal events, pick your own produce, green houses, grocery retailing, and warehouse filling. Fresh, local apples of different varieties were a highlight for the Great Apple Crunch at the Howard Suamico School District. Blaser's Acres is located at 2556 School Lane Green Bay WI 54313 and can be reached at (920) 655-0483 or visit their Website.
Grant Opportunities
Patrick Leahy (USDA) Farm to School Grant Program - Now Open!
Application Deadline: January 10, 2025
The fiscal year (FY) 2025 Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant Program requests for applications (RFAs) are now open! There are three grant tracks, implementation, state agency, and turnkey. Designed to increase the availability of local foods in schools, USDA Farm to School grants can help farm to school programs get started or expand existing efforts. Funds support a wide range of activities from training, planning, and developing partnerships to creating new menu items, establishing supply chains, offering taste tests to children, purchasing equipment, planting school gardens, and organizing field trips to agricultural operations.
Grantees include schools and districts (large and small, rural and urban), tribal organizations, agricultural producers or groups of agricultural producers, non-profit entities, and state and local agencies. Implementation and state agency grants offer funding up to $500,000, turnkey grants offer funding up to $50,000. Applications are due January 10, 2025.
Johnny’s Seeds Community Requests
Schools may request a donation of seeds from Johnny’s Seeds once every 12 months. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. Request seeds using the Community Request Form.
2025 NAITCO Conference Scholarship
Application Deadline: December 15, 2024
This year's National Agriculture in the Classroom conference will be held June 23-26 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This is an opportunity for educators from across the country to come together to not only experience agriculture within the host state, but to learn more about how to integrate agriculture into the core curriculum of their classroom.
Scholarships to provide 2025 National Agriculture in the Classroom Conference registration and up to 4 nights lodging at conference location are available to pre-kindergarten-12th grade teachers. Learn more and apply at National Agriculture in the Classroom.
2025 Tribal Agriculture Fellowship Conference Scholarship
Application Deadline: December 15, 2024
The Tribal Agriculture Fellowship (TAF) is a proud partner with National Agriculture in the Classroom to promote agricultural literacy and advance agriculture among Tribal communities. TAF recognizes the importance of agriculture education and growing the future leaders of Native Agriculture. Partnering with the National Agriculture in the Classroom program allows the opportunity for teachers to continue fostering their knowledge of agriculture and implementing those understandings to classrooms of students all over Indian Country.
This year's scholarships will provide:
- 1- Early Bird Registration ($525)
- Lodging at conference location (Hyatt Regency Minneapolis)
Scholarship Qualifications:
- PreK-12th grade teacher
- Teaching Native students (public or BIE schools) or are of Native descent
Learn more and apply at National Agriculture in the Classroom.
Youth Garden Grant
Application Deadline: December 13, 2024
Since 1982, the Youth Garden Grant has supported school and youth educational garden projects that enhance the quality of life for youth and their communities. Any organization in the United States or US Territories planning a new or improving an existing garden program that serves at least 15 youth between the ages of 0 and 18 is eligible to apply. 50 organizations will be awarded $500 in funding for their youth garden program.
GroMoreGood Garden Grants
Application Deadline: January 10, 2025
The National Head Start Association (NHSA) is offering grants to supplement needs of existing garden projects, help launch new garden projects, or supplement/launch outdoor green space projects. Any Head Start program that is a current NHSA member is eligible to apply. Applicants must have the plot of land in their possession at the time of the application with at least a two-year commitment for the garden to be on that property. Grant awards will vary from $2,500-$5,000.
USDA People’s Garden Initiative
Application Deadline: January 30, 2025
The People’s Garden Initiative through the USDA Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production is funding projects that will support community-based gardens that promote sustainable agriculture practices that benefit people and wildlife. Per the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, gardens of different sizes and types, including school gardens, community gardens, urban farms, and small-scale agriculture projects in rural and urban areas, can be recognized as a People’s Garden.
Project must meet the People’s Garden criteria:
- Join the People’s Garden community by registering a garden at usda.gov/peoples-garden
- Grow the garden using sustainable practices that benefit people and wildlife
- Teach about gardening and resilient, local food systems
Eligibility:
- Eligible applicants include non-profit 501(c) organizations, state government agencies, local governments, municipal governments, Tribal Governments and Organizations and educational institutions
- Ineligible applicants include unincorporated individuals, businesses, international organizations and U.S. Federal government agencies
Grant Amount:
Between $30,000-60,000 spanning 12-18 months.
Learn More Here! -Scroll Down to the Section on the People's Community Gardens.
Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction
Jill K. Underly, PhD, State Superintendent
201 West Washington Avenue
Madison, WI 53703
(608) 266-3390 • (800) 441-4563