Healthy school meals are a basic right for every child in Wisconsin. But, decades of intentional disinvestment in schools and neighborhoods have left our children without enough nourishing food options. Through a multi-state partnership, we’re helping address these historic harms and strengthen our food systems.
In September we co-hosted a “Milwaukee Food System Tour” to visit three different sites doing great community-focused work. This outreach and education is part of our USDA School Food Innovation grant.
This four state, six year, sixteen million dollar project supports the development and implementation of the School Food System Transformation Sub-Grants—funding collaborative projects that bring together school districts, food producers, suppliers, distributors, and community partners to help build a school food system that is resilient, equitable, and nutritious.
This is part of our commitment to showcasing the outstanding work happening across the state in urban farming, school food, food security, and youth and community engagement—and to foster stronger partnerships. We were able to create a meaningful learning experience for about 25 participants, including key staff from selected organizations, our statewide team, and members of the School Food Community Advisory Committee and ambassador graduates of the Food Leaders Lab.
The three locations we toured are:
- Teens Grow Greens: where we enjoyed breakfast and helped them prepare the decor for their Harvest Festival
- CAGE = Community Agricultural Growing Experiences: where we were fed a delicious and healthy lunch and learned about their hydroponic food production
- Kinship Community Food Center: where we toured multiple greenhouses and learned about their free Fresh Food Market
Learn more about the grants here, or contact Daithi Wolfe for more.
