Farm To School Programs and Eating Local

More and more people are interested in eating locally grown, better quality food and connecting to the people who produce it. “Talk & Taste,” a new program series that begins on Dec. 3 at Hennepin County Library, will help you be more informed about the food you put on your plate.

“Eating local,” sustainable farming, farmstays, urban gardening, the University of Minnesota’s Student Organic Farm, and farm-to-school programs are program topics. Each program also will include food tasting featuring restaurants that source local ingredients.

The series is presented in collaboration with the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture and Gastro Non Grata.

Annalisa Hultberg, health and wellness coordinator for the Burnsville, Eagan, Savage Independent School District 191 and associated with the U of M’s College of Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resource Sciences, will speak.  She’ll discuss how and why schools are purchasing food from regional farmers for their students.  Hultberg said that farm-to-school programs offer educational opportunities for the students, better tasting food because it’s fresher, incentive for kids to eat more vegetables because they know more about them, and a boost to the local economy.

A food tasting featuring restaurants that source local ingredients also is scheduled.

At 4:15 p.m., Jane Jewett, Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture at the University of Minnesota, will talk about locally-grown food – where to buy it and resources to find it.

“In the Twin Cities, there are many locally sourced foods available at food co-op stores and at mainline grocery stores,” Jewett said. “Many restaurants serve locally-sourced foods. There are CSA [Community Supported Agriculture] farms and farmer cooperatives that deliver to drop sites within the metro area.” 

One recommended resource is the Minnesota Grown directory.  It is free, and available both in print and online at www.minnesotagrown.com.

Jewett is a member of advisory committees for Minnesota SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education) and Minnesota Grown. She also farms in northeastern Minnesota, raising beef, pork, chicken, and eggs. Nearly all her farm products are direct-marketed, either through the Grand Rapids Farmers Market or right from the farm. Her family raises a large garden, cans and freezes lot of vegetables and fruit, keeps goats to supply milk, and produces a large percentage of their own food supply.