Madison Farm to School in 2011

Let's start with the good stuff.  All of our volunteers, staff, Americorps, chefs, and supporters deserve to hear about all we have accomplished in 2010.  Here are some small victories this year for REAP F2S: 
VICTORY 1 Our pilot snack program grew, and grew, threatened to eat us, and shrank a bit, and now sits at just over 4,000 students in 9 elementary schools.  That will be almost 30,000 pounds of local apples, carrots, kohlrabi, red peppers, spinach, green beans, and cherry tomatoes in the 10-11 school year to name just some of our delicious fresh snacks.  This program continues to develop and mature as we continue to build relationships, offer fresh local food, and provide education to 9 schools in some of Madison's highest-needs neighborhoods. 
VICTORY 2 After 2 years of struggling to fund a snack program, Lake View Elementary got a grant to help with their snacks and Ruth Conniff, superintelligent and motivated parent, got a local snack program off the ground building relationships with the budding North Side Farmer's Market.  Ruth and Principal Kristi Kloos showed us what can be done when staff and parents embrace farm to school as a strategy for motivating kids to try new fresh fruits and vegetables with farmers, songs, and hard work.
VICTORY 3 Tory, David, Liz and Joey are getting noticed! L'Etoile, the Mermaid Cafe, the Weary Traveler and REAP's own chef educator are hard at work teaching middle and high school students to cook with fresh local food.  Family and Consumer Science teachers JoAnn Jensen of Cherokee and Natalie Aguirre of East High are taking time and resources to  incorporate our chefs into their classrooms.  Sherman Principal Mike Hernandez continues to offer generosity of spirit and support for L'Etoile's program at Sherman.  Here's to hoping that this program continues to be valued and noticed by MMSD.