Ideas to consider
Here you’ll find examples of ideas that could be included as part of the school food system project you’re designing. These are not recommended as stand-alone projects for these awards. These ideas may enhance your community engagement or project quality as components of your innovative project.
Please see Inspiration for Projects for examples of innovative, community-driven project ideas that improve the local school food system.
The ideas below can be filtered by type of project and by partners. You can select more than one category in each field. The more categories you select, the more narrow your results will be.
Hands-on Farm Field Trips
On a farm field trip, students participate in the harvest of crops, such as potatoes, which are then brought back to the school and incorporated into a school meal.
Hire a Collaborative Coordinator to Create Relationships for Long-Term Sustainability
A regional coordinator helps organize and pursue support for infrastructure and logistics, with the goal to build long-term relationships among farmers, school districts, health departments and other partners.
Hire a Consultant
Engage a consultant who can support schools in creating kitchens that have the capacity to provide scratch-cooked meals that meet meal pattern standards. Base advice on staffing capacities, skill sets and equipment.
Host a Local Tribal Farm to School Conference
Support American Indian/Alaskan Native farmers, food service directors, teachers, and youth in planning and implementing a Tribal Farm to School Conference, where partners can share their best practices for getting local, culturally relevant foods into schools.
Invite Students and Families to Participate
Gather information on student’s cultures through surveys, focus groups, etc., to determine what foods and meals are most desired. Gather family recipes, and then, partner with the food industry to pilot changes to ensure new foods or meals will be accepted.
Examples
Resources
Marketing
Tell the stories of people working throughout the value chain to build awareness and drive demand for local, values-aligned products.