Imagine produce harvested from Kane County farms served fresh in your school, daycare center or institutional cafeteria. Now, mark your calendar to attend an upcoming workshop where you’ll learn about farm-to-cafeteria programs and resources to help make that a reality.

Kane County and its local food system partners will be hosting this FREE training session on May 15, 2018, for school food service professionals, early care providers, and other institutional food service management interested in incorporating more local food products into their food service or cafeteria menus. This invitation is also open to school board representatives and other early care program administrators.

The event will feature presentations by the Illinois Farm to School Network on effective strategies for integrating local foods and tips for working with farmers. Dream Distributors, the Kane County region’s food hub operator, will also be on hand to discuss their vision for meeting institutional demand for local food products and future opportunities for procurement partnerships.

The afternoon training session is FREE, which will include a complimentary local lunch as well as a live recipe demonstration that could be adapted for your organization’s food service. Plan to arrive by 12:15 p.m. with the session set to begin no later than 12:30 p.m.

Tentative Agenda

• Lunch & Welcome (Kane County) | 12:30 p.m. to 1:15 p.m.
• Harvest of the Month Recipe Demonstration | 1:15 p.m. to 2:15 p.m.
• Tips on Talking to Farmers (IL Farm to School Network) | 2:15 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.
• Kane County Food Hub Meet-and-Greet (Dream Distributors) | 2:45 p.m. to 3:15 p.m.
  
• Local Food Integration Strategies (IL Farm to School Network) | 3:15 p.m. to 3:45 p.m.
• Recap & Workshop Evaluation | 3:45 p.m. to 4 p.m.
  

Please RSVP through the event page no later than Friday, May 11, 2018. If you have any questions about the event, please contact Diane Chapeta or Marlie Wilson with the Illinois Farm to School Network. Organizers ask that you limit the number of staff attendees from your organization to three.

About The Sponsors

This workshop is being sponsored by Food:Land:Opportunity. Funded through the Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust, Food:Land:Opportunity is a collaboration between Kinship Foundation and The Chicago Community Trust.