School food system leaders and professionals make important decisions that may sometimes feel distant to parents, guardians, and family members—especially in larger districts.
Through the following three strategies, developed by three Lake Michigan School Food Innovation Hub grantees, schools are connecting more deeply with parents and other family members—and inspiring them to join the movement to make school meals more local, more nourishing, and more loved.
Offer Students the Tools to Engage Their Parents and Communities
When Escuela Verde High School parents and other relatives visit the school’s student-run cafe, they are likely to encounter vision boards—collections of food-inspired images, drawings, and statements. The students involved in the Milwaukee public charter school’s Edible Learning curriculum created these displays, which connect personal and community goals, values, and personal identities to what they eat.
“We rely on these vision boards to help shape the communication process and the journey of the finished food products,” said Chris Corkery, Founder/CEO of Hundred Acre Farm, a 2024 USDA-funded Lake Michigan School Food System Innovation Hub grantee.
Hundred Acre Farm’s project, “Bringing Fresh Salad Greens to Schools in Wisconsin,” guides students through the planting and harvest of greens, which they then adapt into popular recipes.
“The group is learning about how basil is grown,” Corkery said. “And while it’s not necessarily an herb used in Hispanic cooking, the students are working on a silvery basil agua fresca.”
In addition to the vision boards, students share their knowledge of local food with their parents and wider community by preparing and serving their recipes at the New Line Cafe’s community events—many of which raise funds to expand the program.
“We always have to bring it back to the community; that’s the responsibility of any farm,” said Corkery, listing family pride among the event’s successes. “The abuelas are beside themselves,” he added.
Share Knowledge and Opportunities That Empower Parent Advocates
In a school system as vast as the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS), “it can be hard for parents to know how to engage,” says school food advocate and MPS grandmother Anita Garrett. “There is a door there [for parental participation]; our challenge has been opening the door.”
“A lot of parents are not getting involved because they don’t know how to get involved,” said Garrett. “[They don’t know] that it’s OK to ask questions; it’s OK to challenge a little sometimes.”
Garrett serves as Community Liaison and Lead Advocate for the Good School Food Project, a Lake Michigan School Food System Innovation Hub grantee focused on expanding healthy school meal options by changing both the demand and supply sides of the regional school food system.
“We are closing that gap by letting parents know that everybody has a voice,” said Renee Slotten-Beauchamp, school food nutrition director for the Milwaukee Public Schools, a Good School Food Project partner, along with FoodRight, Inc. and Mutch Better Foods.
The project, which has launched in 19 schools, includes a program to educate and empower parents. These Good School Food Advocates engage other parents in their schools to communicate their priorities and inform changes to the meal service.
“We met the community where they were; we provided education regarding USDA regulations and challenges such as staff shortages,” continued Slotten-Beauchamp. “We brought in school board directors to provide education regarding the operational side of a school board and how to ask questions of your school board members. And as parents began to get the information, their questions led to even more information sharing.”
Many parents are now aware of the challenges of serving a wide variety of menus and are sharing this information with others.
The approach is working: Even in the earliest stages of implementation, they have already seen at least 10 parents participating in MPS board meetings since they were trained.
“MPS was amazed to see the transformation in parents,” said Garrett. “Parents don’t complain anymore!”
Train School Food Professionals to Connect With Families and Communities
When creating a series of skill-development workshops for school food service directors in Southwest Michigan, Lake Michigan School Food Innovation Hub Spark Award grantee Kalamazoo Valley Community College (KVCC) included resources for school food service managers and directors to engage their communities.
During the workshops, managers and directors gathered input from students, staff, and families. Kitchen staff engaged in hands-on training, connected directly with local farmers and food producers, and strengthened peer-to-peer learning through regional networks. All these approaches were designed to help school food leaders build broader support for incorporating locally sourced foods into school meals.
The KVCC-designed curriculum also included a local food procurement story shared by a fellow Innovation Hub grantee in a networking call, said Rachel Bair, Director for Sustainable and Innovative Food Systems at Kalamazoo Valley Community College.