The inaugural Illinois Harvest of the Month (HOTM) program year launched in August 2017, after a successful pilot during the previous school year. More than 840 feeding or garden sites with over 467,500 students combined participate in the program each month. Sites that are eligible to participate in HOTM include individual school sites, entire school […]

The Illinois Great Apple Crunch is a day-long celebration of fresh, local apples from the Midwest! Schools across the state of Illinois can participate by serving local apples on the lunch tray and ‘crunch’-ing into them together as a school. We provide educational supplements for use in the cafeteria and the classroom that will teach […]

On May 15, SGA’s Illinois Farm to School Network (IFSN) Coordinators led a day of trainings and workshops in Kane County at the Northern Illinois Food Bank: “Connecting Kane County Farms to Your Cafeteria.” The event was developed in collaboration with the Growing for Kane Program and featured a locally-sourced lunch, a live recipe demonstration, […]

Always a popular event with those interested in food and environmental issues, the 14th annual Good Food EXPO took place March 23-24 at the UIC Forum in Chicago. A hands-on farmer training was held all day on March 22. Some 150 exhibitors and field experts participated this year. The EXPO, which celebrates sustainable food, attracts […]

Seven Generations Ahead introduced the Illinois Harvest of the Month (HOTM) program at the Illinois School Nutrition Association Summer Conference in Tinley Park, making it available to school districts across the state. The HOTM program helps schools buy and serve more local food, while teaching students about healthy eating, nutrition, and agriculture. Each month, participating schools can […]

The Illinois Farm to School Network team here at SGA is working to make the March 3 Farm to School Day and Farmhouse Fete an educational feast—for the brain and the stomach. What do they have in store? In the morning, there will be trainings and recipe demos for school food service staffers about incorporating Illinois Harvest of […]

It was the crunch heard all around Illinois–the sound of several hundred thousand school children biting into local apples. The second annual Illinois Great Apple Crunch  in October was an overwhelming success, and the Illinois Farm to School Network has the numbers and the photos to prove it. A total of 339,100 students from school districts all over the state participated this […]