In Emmet County, a baker has found a nearby farmer to grow bread-quality wheat. Schools are serving more locally grown food. The Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District is supporting teachers in farm-to-school and school-garden curriculum so that students learn reading, math and science while learning to love eating healthy food. These were just a few of the stories shared recently at the seventh annual Northwest Michigan Food & Farming Network Summit.
Everything we do revolves around food, yet it’s not so easy to define. Go ahead, give it a shot. Now take that definition and ask yourself: Do soft-drinks qualify? How about alcoholic beverages, or bottled water, or fast-food or a protein bar with mysterious ingredients that look a lot like that pharmaceutical ad? This is our challenge as we try to measure our work in the food system, and it’s just the beginning.
At the recent 2014 Michigan Good Food Summit, I was one of 425 people who heard story after story about how the movement to support local food and agriculture is growing across the state.
For 15 years, Central Lake Elementary School has participated in the Farmer to Community Fundraiser, a program that has students selling locally grown produce, fish, meat, honey, milk, and jam to raise funds for school field trips in the spring. Dozens of schools are embracing non-traditional fundraisers featuring local products.
The Michigan Land Use Institute convened food, farm and health leaders from throughout the northwest Michigan region and state to brainstorm, network and plan on how local food can be used to promote good health.
October is National Farm to School Month! For the next 31 days, we’re celebrating local food in school cafeterias, gardens in schoolyards and food & ag education in classrooms. To kick the month off right, we wanted to share some of the great stories from our FoodCorps service members, Meghan McDermott and Lianna Bowman.