School meal recipe development is a key consideration in USDA-funded Lake Michigan School Food System Innovation Hub projects—from the farmers planning for the following seasons to the students walking up to the cafeteria line each day.
Check out this recipe from one of our 2024 grantees, inspired by local ingredients, the creativity of school food professionals, and meaningful student engagement.
The Wisconsin Food Hub Cooperative’s Bean Tostada
The Wisconsin Food Hub Cooperative’s Tend & Table boxes for rural schools provide enough supplies to make a meal using a USDA standardized recipe that aligns with USDA school nutrition standards. Here’s the first recipe they tested—a blend of pinto beans, onions, and spices spread on a whole grain tostada shell.
Learn more about the Tend & Table Boxes.
And that’s not all!
Recipes like this one are possible because of the collaboration behind them—farmers, food service directors, partners, and students working step-by-step to make local food work in schools. In addition to the Wisconsin example above, projects in the other three states are also getting creative, and succeeding, with recipe development.
MICHIGAN
“Partridge Creek Farm had the right partners in place, then prioritized flexibility to build a program around student voice, before taking their next steps forward. Let’s grow it locally and process it. How do we do it? Store it, freeze it? That’s where food service directors’ brains go right away. Let’s experiment on mashed potatoes—how long to freeze, how to store, and then use them. Recipe development has really helped them. I see their excitement as they take each of those steps.”
—Julie Lehman, MSU Center for Regional Food Systems, Lake Michigan School Food System Innovation Hub’s Michigan State Lead
INDIANA
School leaders led 85 third graders from Anderson Elementary to plant lettuce, radishes, and carrots to be featured in a Celebration Salad. “The garden grew so quickly in the warm weather that the third graders already got to eat their celebration salad that was planned for the end of the growing season! This was a taste test during school lunch, and it included a mix of their own salad greens and radishes and some extra lettuce from a local farmer.”
—Laura Arico
President of Madison Youth Unlimited
Partner in Madison School’s Growing Minds project, a 2024 Innovation Collaborative Grantee
ILLINOIS
New Berlin Community Unit School District 16 is now serving Homemade Pancakes, a recipe cooked up with flour from local Janie’s Mill. Read More.