(We’re stoked about this!)

Northwest Lower Michigan is part of an emerging national movement to fund school staff who focus exclusively on local food in school meals and on nutrition and garden education for students. Five schools in the Charlevoix-Emmet Intermediate School District recently received grants of $40,000 each, allocated across two years, to expand the use of locally grown foods and further cultivate a culture of food health in the schools. Here’s the backstory of this exciting development!

Ever since our Petoskey office was established in 2017, Groundwork, along with many core community partners, has been a driving force in the Char-Em region’s farm to school movement. Now, seven tireless years later, we are proud to announce that United Way of Northwest Michigan in partnership with Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities was awarded the Whole Child Nutrition: Policy, Infrastructure, Food Literacy grant through the Michigan Health Endowment Fund.

This is a two-year grant cycle in which a portion of funds will be distributed to districts within the Char-Em ISD to be used to enhance farm to school skills for food service staff, educators, and anyone else working on farm to school initiatives. The funding is also intended to support or create a part- or full-time staff Farm to School Coordinator position within five districts.

The idea behind the two-year grant project is to provide seed funding for a permanent staff person within each of the five school districts who would coordinate a district’s farm to school programming. The staff person would foster a schoolwide culture of health and assist districts in building a local food system that regenerates itself—a system that would forever provide local food for students and indefinitely sustain a culture of local food. The project continues the efforts that Groundwork and FoodCorps have invested since the 2016-2017 school year, beginning with Boyne Falls Public Schools. 

The staff person would provide a wide range of services to a school district, including:

• Teach garden and nutrition education
• Advocate for the district’s participation in Michigan’s 10 Cents a Meal progra
• Assist food service staff/directors in efforts to procure local or regional Michigan produce
• Curate a menu with more scratch-cooked meals utilizing locally procured food
• Implement student-led conversations around nutrition and school meals
• Include more culturally relevant lessons and meals
• Lead family engagement events around wellness and nutrition
• Implement regular “Try-it” days and taste tests, and more.

The Farm to School Coordinator will receive direct support from Groundwork’s Farm to Institution Specialist (that’s me, Cori Fitzpatrick) and a FoodCorps School Nutrition Service Member who works in partnership with me at Groundwork. I am also planning to facilitate regular meetings for the Char-Em ISD Farm to School Cohort, which is made up of administrators, farm to school coordinators, school wellness professionals, and food service directors who discuss barriers and solutions to common questions or concerns. 

Join me in congratulating the five schools partnering with us on this grant—Pellston Public Schools, Public Schools of Petoskey, Ellsworth Public Schools, Boyne Falls Public Schools, and East Jordan Public Schools—and cheer their commitment to student health and wellness.

Also very important: Each and every school district in the ISD will be able to utilize professional development opportunities provided by this funding in the coming year whether they hired a Farm to School Coordinator or not.

Stay tuned for news of this exciting and innovative program as the work moves forward in coming months and years!

Cori Fitzpatrick, Groundwork’s Farm to Institution Specialist.
cori.fitzpatrick@groundworkcenter.org