Online event
Thursday, May 5, 2022 at 1:00 PM CDT

Overview

Schools offer a strong market opportunity for agricultural producers. With more than 30 million students enjoying school meals through the National School Lunch Program each day, schools provide a large, stable, and long-term market option. Districts across the country are working with agriculture producers to include local foods in school meals.

Heard about the farm to school concept, but not really sure how to “dig in”? Join this training to learn how to take advantage of these farm to school market opportunities:

• Learn about accessing school markets and growing products for schools.
• Gain new knowledge and resources for expanding your business to take advantage of school market opportunities.

Registration is free and open to the public. Please share with your farmer friends!

**Before you start this farm to school training, we ask that you take part in a short survey that will help improve future trainings and examine the impact of the farm to school producer trainings you are participating in.

This survey will ask you questions about your farm, your current sales to schools, and knowledge about farm to school. The survey should take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete.

Access the survey here.

We also have a shorter survey for you to complete at the end of the training. This will take about 5 minutes.

The Presenter

Crystal Besse is the Seeds to Success Program Director and is responsible for programming, partnerships, and promotion of farm to school in Louisiana and local food systems. In this role, Crystal expanded farm to school initiatives statewide and developed resources for producers, food service professionals, and educators. The goals of these initiatives are to increase access to local food, increase capacity of school gardens, and provide agricultural and nutrition education. Crystal has 14 years’ experience in fostering community engagement, nutrition education, and safe food practices in underserved communities. She has an MPH in epidemiology, and is a trainer for Produce Safety Alliance Grower Training and USDA Produce Safety University.

---

Sponsors

This webinar is part of a series sponsored by Southern Extension Risk Management Education (SERME) and the LSU AgCenter.

Webinar Recording: Coming soon!

After watching the webinar, please complete the survey.

Resources:

• Seeds to Success Survey
• Farm to School Census Data
• Practical Farm Certifications (Food Safety Info)
• Taking Root: Farm fresh school food (Hoophouses for Health Video, Michigan)
• Collards in the Cafeteria Video

---