It’s 7:45am on a Tuesday morning and I’ve arrived at East Jordan Middle High School. I’m here to visit Melissa Lyons, who leads the cafeteria efforts in the building, and who has already been here for hours. Melissa invites me into her kitchen and directs me to a...
Groundwork’s Building Resilient Communities program helps East Jordan Elementary expand its garden to table and Indigenous Foodways curriculum “Aanii boozhoo!” says Jen Lewis, East Jordan’s school garden coordinator from Wagbo Farm and Education Center. She welcomes...
Zoe Fauble, a senior at Whitehall Public Schools, learned to love fresh vegetables after helping her dad and grandmother in their garden. It was the most economical way for them to eat, and it was delicious. But put beans into a muffin? That’s not anything she’d ever...
The public school system of East Jordan is a small but mighty player when it comes to building a culture of nutritious food for students. The district’s ongoing collaborations with Groundwork, FoodCorps, the Health Department of Northwest Michigan, and other...
The Michigan Department of Education (MDE) just launched seven farm to school videos highlighting important aspects of farm to school programming in Michigan. The videos include interviews with a wide variety of farm to school champions and stakeholders from across...
Above: Scott Zomerlei, Garden Planner/Engineer, left, and Phil Raymond II, right, General Manager/Sales Representative, Blue Mitten Farms. When you consider agricultural land, a suburban community like Okemos isn’t usually the first place that comes to mind. Situated...