Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack is in Madison today to award our project a grant!
CIAS is working with farmers, processors, and distributors to go from zero Wisconsin veggies in Wisconsin public schools to 1.3 million servings in 2014.That amounts to targeting 60% of Wisconsin school districts with two new food service-friendly products.
Andy Dierks, Coloma Farms, Teresa Engel at DATCP, Anna Maenner at the Wisconsin Fresh Market Vegetable Growers Association, Mary Pesik with DHS, June Paul with DPI, Cheryl Piel with the School Nutrition Association, and Mike Bell (CESoc) and Alfonso Morales (URPL) at the UW, supported the project proposal.
The project encourages two new products to the school lunch menu: Harvest Medley – a mix of root vegetables, squash and herbs – and a roasted potato blend. Both products have been successful in St. Paul and Milwaukee school lunch program trials.
Fifth Season coop in Viroqua will be working with Reinhart to get the new products to market. Maglio’s in Glendale is working with SYSCO.
Not too shabby.
Congratulations and thank you to Sarah Tedeschi and project partners for making this happen!
We’re gaining momentum! What I love about this initiative is that it’s truly collaborative, it uses existing systems, brave moves like Fifth Season Cooperative help make it possible, and we are focused on something valuable and attainable—two delicious, simple products in the bellies of lots of kids.