The Washington State Farm to School & Scratch Cooking Institutes are a professional development opportunity for child nutrition program food service staff, school & ECE administrators, educators, and other partners to develop your farm to school & ECE programs and use more local, Washington grown foods in scratch-made meals at schools, childcare and preschools, and other child nutrition programs. Whether starting or expanding your program, the Institutes’ two-day intensive will provide selected school district or ECE provider teams with training from expert lead trainers, and guest speakers from other Washington school food programs and community partners.
Applications closed Friday, June 11, 2021.
WSDA held an info session on May 14th about the institutes, application, and what to expect.
Watch the info session recording here
Download the info session slides here
The Farm to School & Scratch Cooking Institutes will cover:
- Large-scale scratch cooked meal preparation and production
- Working with local farms and producers to source ingredients
- Marketing and promoting your farm to school efforts and working with student leadership
- Using culturally relevant and traditional foods
- Integrating farm to school efforts from the cafeteria to classrooms, gardens, and other school settings.
One institute being offered August 19-20 is focused specifically on traditional and native foods, particularly for tribal schools and childcare centers.
Selected teams will develop Farm to School Action Plans for their program at the intensive two-day training, and then receive coaching through regular cohort check-ins after the training to get support with their next steps and learn from one another.
We hope participating child nutrition programs will come away from the institutes with a better understanding of large-scale scratch cooking production methods, procurement policies and procedures when buying from local farms and producers, marketing techniques, and having integrated these pieces into a farm to school plan for their nutrition program.
Dates & Locations:
Check back soon for location updates!
- August 19: Tribal & Traditional School Foods Institute - (focused specifically on traditional and native foods, particularly for tribal schools and childcare centers)
- Moved to a virtual, online format
- August 23-24: Central & Eastern Washington Institute
- Moved to a virtual, online format
- August 26-27: Western Washington Institute
- Moved to a virtual, online format
Scholarships may be available if travel is a barrier to participation. Please indicate on your application if you would need help covering travel costs.
The Institute Training Team includes Chef Andre Uribe, Elizabeth Campbell from Cedar Circle Consultation, Chef Kent Getzin, Nora Frank-Buckner from Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board, Georgia Johnson, and Chris Iberle from Washington State Department of Agriculture. Each institute will also feature guest speakers and farm to school leaders from the region.
Cost: Free for school district or ECE staff within Washington State.
The Washington State Farm to School & Scratch Cooking Institutes are being offered in 2021 thanks to the support of a USDA Farm to School Grant.
Forming your team: Teams must be comprised of 3-4 individuals representing various key staff or students involved in the school district or ECE provider. Teams must include the food or nutrition director, and should include one administrator (such as a superintendent, principal, business manager, or school board member). The other 1-2 other team members can include additional food service staff, school garden educator, classroom teacher, student, or community member involved in the school or ECE meal program.
*Administrators or non-food service staff are invited to attend the full two days if time permits, but the agenda will be structured to allow attendance of non-food service team members for just one day.
Institute structure & commitment: Selected participants will be committing to participating in the following phases of the institute:
- One two-day intensive in August. At least two team members will be required to attend the institute in-person. A virtual option may be provided to increase participation for more members from your program’s team, but at least two people will need to attend both days in person (public health guidance permitting). See dates above.
- Twice a month cohort check-in calls from October through January
- One exit interview or survey, and review a short success story about your program (drafted by WSDA)
Requirements or adjustments for COVID-19: We are currently planning to host the August institute intensives in-person, pending any local restrictions. Participants will be required to follow all federal, state, and county public health guidelines in place at the time and location of the institute, and WSDA will update attendees on current requirements. We'll continue to assess the feasibility of conducting the institutes in-person at our host school districts as the intensive dates approach. If the situation changes and the institutes can no longer be held in-person, WSDA and the training team will update selected participants by July 31, 2021 on postponement or any alternative formats for the institute.
Please direct questions to WSDA Farm to School via email to ciberle@agr.wa.gov.