Connecting Students and the School Community to Local Foods with Farm to School

In this episode of The S-Files, we are exploring the service done by AmeriCorps member Kori Blumer, who is serving her second term with Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction AmeriCorps Farm to School at the Monona Grove School District. Kori describes the variety of service activities she has done leading nutrition education lessons and cafeteria taste tests, helping to get local foods into schools, and supporting the sustainability of school gardens and farm to school programming across the district. She also discusses the launch of their new community dinner series during Farm to School month in October to highlight their efforts in procuring local foods for school meals. Kori shares about how her academic background in nutrition and becoming a registered dietitian helped lead her to her Farm to School AmeriCorps service and the enjoyment she has found working with students and connecting with the community.  Listen to learn how Kori is using varied lessons across the age range of students she is serving, as well as using a variety of foods to make connections with students, from local butternut squash, beans, and corn in Three Sisters Stew to help celebrate Native American Heritage Month to exposing students to the use of insects in foods and agriculture in different parts of the world by bringing in chocolate chip cookies made with cricket powder and chapulines (fried grasshoppers).