Looking to Start a Farm to School
Program? Start Here.
Small steps are key when it comes to big projects. As a food manufacturer, what’s the first step we take whenever we’re working on a big sourcing project? Building the right team. That’s where we would start with a Farm to School Program too.
it’s time to get to know one another. What is motivating them to be here? What skills does each person have? What does their schedule look like? We want them to attend meetings and events! Create a structure. Now that you have a team and you know what makes them tick, create a structure. If you alone have to prepare, run and organize follow-up items for every single meeting or action item, your project will fizzle fast. Get to know each individual teammate’s strength and let them shine. Divide up responsibilities and tackle each step together. Creating a solid structure, possibly even with positions or roles, will help keep things clear. Motivate the team. You have a structured team, now what? Keeping them motivated and on track is key. Building a Farm to School program is a big project, you don’t want to try to tackle it in one meeting. Instead, start small. Create one, actionable item each month that will directly help you work towards your one big end goal for the year. Maybe your goal is as simple as to conduct a survey to understand what is most important to your community or to switch a top item to a local supplier. This is a marathon, not a sprint.
Tip: The USDA has a great planning toolkit to reference as you go.
Make the commitment small. Ready to ask people to join your planning or advising team? Keep the barrier to entry low. This will keep people engaged and make the commitment feel achievable. We’re all busy! But if someone chooses to add this Farm to School project to their plate, it will be fun and rewarding. Ask a wide range of people for a diverse group of viewpoints. Seeing all angles of a project will help you succeed. One way to do this, invite a variety of people with different roles and backgrounds to join the team. From teachers and students to parents, local chefs, professors, farmers/gardeners and even people with professional communication skills, a range of skills and knowledge will help you have a lot of tools in your metaphorical toolbox. Get to know each other. Once you have a group of diverse people assembled,
Annelise is the Director of Marketing & Brand Stewardship at Ready Foods in Denver, Colorado. Graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Annelise has spent her career making sure food sounds appetizing on paper, looks good in pictures and tastes amazing when you order it. Her day-to-day consists of working at Ready Foods to connect food service operators with ready-to-use kitchen solutions that are easy to incorporate into a kitchen flow and bring great flavor to menu items. Her favorite hot lunch in elementary school was always nacho day. Ready Foods Annelise McAuliffe Soares
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