Category Archives: Initiatives

Local Food Training for Institutions

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Local Food Training for Institutions:

Greg Christian Takes On Your Menu and Budget

Thursday December 6, 2012, 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Dane County UW-Extension Building,  5201 Fen Oak Dr, Madison, WI

 

Don’t miss this! IFM and Greg Christian are teaming up to bring you this hands-on training. Greg is known nationally for his efforts to help food service operations use more sustainable practices and source local food. At this training, Greg will work with participating food service directors and chefs to help them learn how to incorporate more seasonal local food into their menus and budgets. Attendees are encouraged to bring purchase orders, receipts, menus, and recipes from November and December 2011 so Greg can help problem solve on the spot. Greg will also prepare several seasonal dishes appropriate for an institutional kitchen.

Registration: An agenda with a registration form is attached. You can also find these on the IFM website. Mail in your registration form with a check (or request an invoice) by November 19. Prices are $50 for non IFM Members, $35 for IFM members, and $25 for culinary students.

More About Greg Christian: Greg is the founder and CEO of Beyond Green. He is a chef, author, and consultant to food service operations with a focus on sustainability. He designed the sustainability strategy for the Field Museum’s food service. Most recently, he has been working with Bureau Valley School District 340 and Niles Township High School District 219 generating healthy food-sustainability strategies for their food service operations.

More About IFM: The Institutional Food Market Coalition (IFM) is a Dane County UW-Extension program that works to increase the sales of local Wisconsin food to institutions. We connect buyers with local food suppliers and offer educational opportunities to help them overcome obstacles to local sourcing. Read more on the IFM website.

Please share this invitation widely, and contact me with any questions. Hope you can make it!

Sincerely,

Laura Witzling
IFM Coordinator
Dane County UW-Extension
5201 Fen Oak Dr, Room 138
Madison, WI 53718
Phone: (608) 224-3710
Email: witzling@countyofdane.com

www.ifmwi.org

An EEO/AA employer, UW Extension provides equal opportunities and programming, including Title IX and ADA requirements.

 

Making F2S work

Some of you may know Josh Miner, former F2S coordinator for the LaCrosse school district. Josh has done some great work looking at the economics of some of the efforts to get high-quality food into medium-sized school districts. As we know, it must be economically viable to be sustainable. Josh shared his thoughts on the economics of F2S with me recently. Making Farm-to-School work in Wisconsin (for real)

Increasing capacity in the tri-state area

Iowa State Extension just hired Brittany Bethel as the new Regional Foods Coordinator for Eastern Iowa and the tri-state area of IA, WI and IL. She writes,

” We have a vibrant community of farmers, consumers, institutions and agencies dedicated to promoting the use of local foods, and many resources for people interested in the nutritional, environmental and economic benefits of using more food produced in our region. I will be promoting promote resources, partners and programs that will support the further growth of our local foods community.

My position is supported by the Limestone Bluffs  RC&D and the Dubuque County ISU Extension.  The deliverables include: Producer Inventory, Local Food Buyer List, Email Distribution (to share events, information, and news), Training Events, Stakeholder Meetings, Business Development Activities and Development of a Regional Food System Expansion Plan.  Other organizations involved include Buy Fresh, Buy Local-River Bend and Dubuque Eats Well RFSWG.”

Sign up for their site – she is posting many local events that may be of interest, especially for those in the Dubuque area.

Welcome Brittany!

Driftless regional food policy council?

I posted a question on regional food systems to LinkedIn, and a respondent suggested I take a look at what they are doing in Puget Sound. What do you think? Would a Driftless Region food policy council make sense?

http://psrc.org/about/advisory/regional-food-policy-council

Another respondent shared what they are doing in Ontario. There is a nonprofit who organized its members to attend food shows in major markets. The equivalent would be to purchase some floor exhibition space at the Fancy Food Show in Chicago for Driftless purveyors. Ditto Twin Cities, Milwaukee, etc.. What do you think of that?

Transportation Costs and Considerations

Mark your calendar for a Workshop on transportation costs, the evening of May 2, 2012 in Dubuque. This event is targeted to farmers who want to assess what their transportation costs are and consider alternate ways to get their products to market. The event is free, but we need an RSVP to ensure adequate refreshments. Please spread the word throughout the region.

Land Stewardship Project and Iowa Extension is offering the workshop, in conjunction with the UW-Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems and the National Center on Freight Infrastructure, Research and Education.

Growing hazelnuts in the Driftless

Are you growing hazelnuts in the Drifltess? Are you thinking about it? CIAS is working with the University of Minnesota, UW-Extension, Rural Advantage, UW-Stevens Point, UW-Superior and the UW-Horticulture department on a hazelnut project. Hazelnuts are native to our region and have the potential to hold soil in place, withstand drought, and provide a high-quality food source. The project has three primary components: select native bushes that show potential for good nut bearing and evaluate the native/european crosses that are already growing on farms in the three states; work on developing processing equipment that is appropriate scale for small to mid-size operations; and help farmers organize their processing and marketing efforts to make the most of rural economic opportunities. Check out the Midwest Hazelnut Initiative web site if you want to learn more. http://www.midwesthazelnuts.org/

Attached are two documents. The first Hazelnut Wiki gives an overview of hazelnuts. The second is a GIS analysis of hazelnut production in Wisconsin, with some suggestions for where to place a processing facility.    Hazelnut_PDF_GIS_Analysis 

 

The Good Food Revolution in SW WI

Charlene Elderkind at the Viroqua Food Co-op tells the story of her community’s efforts in “The Good Food Revolution” .  Charlene has participated in both Driftless conferences to date.

We suggest a full perusal of the co-op’s website which features a blog that gives some insight into the development of co-op and other Driftless-related posts.