The Illinois Farm to School Network (IFSN), a program of Seven Generations Ahead’s (SGA), has been hard at work making it easier for farmers and schools to connect so they can get sustainable and healthy food in more school cafeterias. This year’s Everything Local Conference proved to be fertile ground for growing farm to school relationships. The conference is sponsored by the Illinois Farm Bureau, The Illinois Specialty Growers Association, and the Illinois Farmers Market Association.
Before the conference officially began, SGA Executive Director, Gary Cuneen, attended a meeting convened by the nonprofit organization, Experimental Station. Cuneen serves on a task force that is developing an Illinois Food System Roadmap, and is currently soliciting feedback from food system stakeholders throughout the state. This work, which is supported by a grant from the Illinois Department of Human Services, will create a much-needed resource to support the growth of a local, sustainable, and resilient foodshed.
Diane Chapeta, program manager for IFSN, spent several busy days at the conference training farmers and buyers on the best ways to connect, and creating opportunities for them to start building relationships right there at the conference. She held multiple bootcamp sessions with attendees ranging from schools, food councils, learning farms and traditional farms. Chapeta’s trainings helped both farmers and buyers understand the ins and outs of local procurement, best practices, and provided resources for stakeholders in the local food movement to more easily connect.
One particularly good example of how successful these trainings can be was the experience of Rachelle Wuellner, the Food/Nutrition and Wellness Director for Bunker Hill School District, in a rural town south of Springfield, Illinois, not far the Missouri border. The school district has 618 students, and their school lunch menus serve fresh food cooked from scratch. She had a very specific local food request Chapeta wasn’t sure if she’d be able to fulfill: local mushrooms. One of the meals on their lunch menu is shish kabobs, with local chicken and cherry tomatoes, but Wuellner was having a hard time finding local mushrooms to complete the dish.
Chapeta suggested Wuellner sign up for an Illinois MarketMaker account, a resource created by University of Illinois Extension personnel, on which Chapeta trains farmers and buyers to provide an effective platform for connecting. Wuellner signed up during the training, and sure enough, MarketMaker helped her connect right away with a farm only about 10 miles from her district that had just what she needed.
Chapeta also helped bring farmers, buyers and other stakeholders together in a mixer event. She helped them understand how best to approach other folks at the event, and facilitated opportunities for farmers to speak to the group about who they are and what they grow. Wuellner even got up and spoke to the attendees about wanting to buy their food.
“It’s such a cool thing to see happen,” said Chapeta. “It’s the highlight of the conference that we’re starting to bring all these groups together who’ve never mixed before.”
On the second day of the conference, the three Illinois grant winners of the Spark Awards, a grant funded through the Lake Michigan School Food System Innovation Hub, had the opportunity to share about their progress on their projects. They also spoke about the purpose of their projects, to help build an innovative and sustainable local food shed, and Chapeta said attendees were very interested in the work. The Innovation Hub is convened by the Illinois Public Health Institute, and SGA serves as the Illinois State Lead, overseeing the grant-making process.
Chapeta closed out the conference on the last day with trainings for farmers interested in selling to schools. Many different attendees showed up for different sessions within the four-hour block of trainings, and some even stayed for all four hours. Discussions and question and answer sessions were lively, said Chapeta, and farmers were able to leave the sessions with plenty of information to help them on their farm to school journey.
The Everything Local Conference was just the start of multiple opportunities this year for farmers and buyers to learn more about local food procurement and how to connect. Chapeta will be holding the next round of trainings in Rockford, Illinois on March 11, 2025. For more information and to register, visit the Illinois Farm to School Network website.