Monday, July 22, 2024

Contact: Daithi Wolfe, dwolfe@kidsforward.org

Building More Local, More Nourishing, More Loving School Food Systems in Wisconsin

Wisconsin organizations received funding from the Lake Michigan School Food System Innovation Hub to create more local, nourishing, and loved school meals across the Lake Michigan region, which includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Wisconsin provides 75 Million school meals to students across the state, and each and every meal is powered by a dynamic system of farmers, food producers, processors, distributors, and more.

The Innovation Hub, convened by the Illinois Public Health Institute, provides two grant awards to spark and support innovative ideas to strengthen school food systems and products. The Spark Awards and Innovation Collaborative Awards are funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Healthy Meals Incentives Initiative to stimulate the creation of a resilient, equitable, and nutritious school food system. Awardees are slated to begin their projects in August 2024.

“We are excited to fund partners that are driving change at every part of the food system. In addition to providing local and nourishing school meals to children in Wisconsin, the projects supported by the Innovation Hub will boost the local economy by supporting farmers and food producers that have been affected by inequitable systems.” says Amy Korth (MS, RDN), Administrative Lead with healthTIDE.

healthTIDE and Kids Forward are working alongside the Illinois Public Health Institute, and other national and regional partners in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan to create the Lake Michigan School Food System Innovation Hub, especially prioritizing communities that do not have equitable access to resources. The Innovation Hub will fuel change for the Wisconsin school food system, creating abundance—including funding, support, and nourishing food choices—for our farms, local businesses, schools, and communities.

“We look forward to funding organizations who have trusted relationships with their communities to tailor these innovative programs to meet their community needs,” said Dr. Crystal Pirtle Tyler, CEO of the Illinois Public Health Institute. “We understand the pivotal role school nutrition plays in the lives of students across the Lake Michigan region and we look forward to the opportunity to support and grow these innovative programs with our awardees.”

The organizations that are receiving funding in Wisconsin include:

Innovation Collaborative Awards

• Menominee Indian Tribe (WI)- “Rising Suns: Expanding Food Sovereignty Efforts of The Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin and The Menominee Indian School District”
• Food Right (WI)- “Good School Food: A community-driven, food system approach to expand healthy school meal options in Milwaukee”
• Wisconsin Food Hub (WI)- “Building a Farm to School Logistics and Pricing Model for the Great Lakes Region”
• REAP Food Group (WI)-“School Nutrition Culinary Innovators of Tomorrow”
• Hundred Acre (WI)- “Bringing Fresh Salad Greens to Schools in Wisconsin”

Spark Awards

• Northeast Wisconsin Hmong Professionals (WI)- “Introducing Hmong Cultural Food to the School System”
• RootedWI, Inc (WI)- “Growing for Schools”
• The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System (WI)- “Growing Capacity and Connections for Hmong-Focused Farm to School”

“Through these awards, the Lake Michigan School Food System Innovation Hub is helping communities address historic harms by supporting immediate and systems-level change that will spur local economies, strengthen our food systems and create more nourishing school meals,” said Kathryn Bernstein, Food Systems and Nutrition Policy Program Director at the Illinois Public Health Institute.

Future iterations of these awards will be available in 2025. Learn more about the Lake Michigan School Food System Innovation Hub, see a full list of funded partners across the Lake Michigan region and connect with a State Lead today at InnovateSchoolFood.org.

Lake Michigan School Food System Innovation Hub nurtures community-driven collaborations that reimagine students’ meals. By working together, we’re building pathways for local, nutritious and culturally relevant food to reach more schools across Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Indiana — especially in areas that don’t have equitable access to resources. We offer funding, training and other help to collectives of schools, school districts, organizations, farmers, producers, suppliers and distributors who are transforming our school food system to better serve our communities. We are funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and convened by the Illinois Public Health Institute. Organizations leading the initiative include Seven Generations Ahead (Illinois), Michigan State University’s Center for Regional Food Systems (Michigan), NWI Food Council (Indiana), Kids Forward (Wisconsin), healthTIDE (Wisconsin), National Farm to School Network, Chicago Food Policy Action Council and Action for Healthy Kids. InnovateSchoolFood.org