The popular 10 Cents a Meal for School Kids & Farms incentive procurement pilot program is providing schools with up to 10 cents per meal in match funding to purchase and serve Michigan-grown fruits, vegetables, and legumes to an estimated 48,000 students in 16 grant-winning school districts. Lawmakers are encouraged to expand the program, as schools are serving a greater variety of fruits and vegetables and that is exactly what Michigan farmers grow.
Twenty-eight business leaders have joined a new Great Lakes Business Network (GLBN), which calls for the strategic decommissioning of Line 5, Enbridge’s 63-year-old oil pipelines on the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac.
Spring is the season of rejuvenation, of hope, and of anticipation. We eagerly anticipate the Michigan Clean Energy Conference & Fair, which our energy policy specialist Dan Worth has helped organize, and which Northwestern Michigan College will host June 23-25.
Tech entrepreneur, startup investor and philanthropist Casey Cowell has joined Groundwork’s Board of Directors. In 1976, Cowell and friends created U.S. Robotics, which developed the world’s first computer modem. The Cowell Cancer Center at Munson Medical Center in Traverse City recently opened, exemplifying his commitment to healthful communities. Cowell wants to help foster healthful communities in northern Michigan, as well as expand the region’s growing tech scene and create jobs in Traverse City.
A passenger rail study that will evaluate the feasibility of running regular train service between Petoskey, Traverse City and Ann Arbor is set to leave the station this spring, the Traverse Ticker reported in February. The “A2TC Train” study is a partnership between the Michigan Department of Transportation and the Groundwork Center.
Shelli and Joey DiFranco got the ‘itch’ to move to Traverse City from Chicago after falling in love with the region’s natural beauty and a vibrant culinary scene. Shelli initially got a job with Hagerty Insurance, which allowed them to make the leap. They live outside town, in Leelanau County, with their son Renzo.