About

WHY PARTICIPATE?

MARKETING

Put Local On Your Tray school districts receive promotional materials such as posters, stickers, and newsletter templates. These materials have been developed to help engage students, parents, faculty, and the wider community to celebrate the farm to school work taking place in your school(s).

MENU PLANNING

Harvest of the month programs like Put Local On Your Tray are an easy way to bring more local foods into the cafeteria. By focusing on one local product each month, we can work more closely with farmers to grow the food needed, and build that local product into school menus gradually.

EDUCATION

Put Local On Your Tray provides tools and assistance for educating students about health and local food systems. We do this through marketing materials, and cafeteria activities like taste-tests. When kids have an opportunity to learn and engage with fruits and vegetables in a positive way, they are much more likely to eat them.

NUTRITION

Fresh foods taste better and are more nutritious. We help school districts source and incorporate local product into school menus using kid-approved recipes.

LOCAL ECONOMIES

More local foods in schools results in more support for our farmers. This means more of our dollars stay in the community, and local economies are strengthened.

ENVIRONMENT

Farmers are stewards of our natural environment. The practices they use to grow our food affects the quality of our water, air, and soil. Buying local makes it possible for our farmers to take good care of our collective ecosystems. Healthy farms = healthy kids.