REAL FOOD COLORADO

Fresh, Nutritious, Locally-Grown Food Direct from Growers to Schools

WHAT IS REAL FOOD COLORADO • Opening Farm to School Regional Food Hubs that serve as a processing and distribution center to move locallygrown food to schools. • Responsible for handling administrative details for producers, reducing their cost and manpower expense. • Reduces burden on School Food Service professionals and facilitates their use of local food sources. • Addresses food safety concerns of schools and County Health Departments. • First Food Hub will be located in Northern Colorado (NoCo Food Hub), where partnerships already exist with St. Vrain Valley and Greeley-Evans school districts.

REAL FOOD COLORADO Tasks • Provide schools in Northern Colorado with directly sourced, regionally-supplied fresh produce beyond the current season. • Facilitate participation in the federally-subsidized national school breakfast and lunch programs. • Educate agricultural producers on the production planning, contractual, food safety and handling requirements of school district purchasing. • Function as a resource for nutrition education and community outreach for school districts.

REAL FOOD COLORADO Tasks • Collect, track, and share annual data on sales in direct markets to chefs and schools in Northern Colorado. • Collaborate with researchers to examine the impact of local, fresh, and unprocessed produce and other foods on children’s minds and bodies. • Become an integral part of the federally-subsidized school food programs and a resource for nutrition education and community outreach for school districts.

What is Farm to School?

Farm to School • A movement, started in the late 1990s: – Connects schools (K-12) and local farms – Provides locally grown products for school meals – Improves nutrition in school meals – Encourages healthy eating through nutritional education – Strengthens local farms – Teaches children about agriculture

• More than 2000 programs in 50 states. • More than 8,900 schools across the US participate in a F2S program.

Colorado Farm to School Values • Increase access to higher quality and locally sourced ingredients. • Work with existing school meal programs to improve nutrition standards in Colorado Schools. • Maximize education about healthy eating introducing students to local food sources.

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• Enhance food safety by allowing Colorado Schools to access their local resources: Know Your Food! • Strengthen Colorado agriculture by a continuous system of purchasing direct from Colorado producers.

Who We Are • Julia Erlbaum: Executive Director – Former Executive Director of School Procurement expansion plan for a large Colorado orchard processing business: • Integrated an organic locally grown and manufactured product within traditional school procurement process. • Created a successful marketing and sales expansion of Farm to School business, expanding its product placement to more than 39 School Districts. – Over 15 years experience in Business Management, Marketing, Development, and Strategic Planning.

Who We Are • Karen McManus: Agriculture Development Director – Principal architect of Farm to School program for Greeley-Evans Weld 6 School District. – Colorado Agriculture Producer and Business Owner for more than 20 years. – Agricultural Producer Consultant to schools. – Member of the Board of Directors for the Food Bank of Larimer County.

Major Partners • Wendy Peters Moschetti—Wellness, Food System & Policy Consultant – Consults on a wide variety of local & state-wide food systems policy projects and school health & wellness initiatives. – Conducts outreach, policy analysis, and advocacy to advance access to healthy foods & launch state-wide program to develop regional farm to school networks.

• Dawn Thilmany—Professor and Extension Economist, Colorado State University – Local food system and building farmers program development – Experience with Value Added and Marketing grants

Existing Partners • Colorado State University • Northern Colorado Regional Food System Assessment Project Teams • Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment • Greeley-Evans Weld County School District 6 and St. Vrain Valley School District • Be Local Northern Colorado • Colorado Farm to School

The Beneficiaries: Our Children

The Beneficiaries: Colorado • Real Food Colorado will: – Create a sustainable infrastructure for moving locallygrown products into schools and communities. – Improve nutrition for children and adults in our communities. – Help local producers increase business and their profile. – Bring jobs and economic benefit to Colorado. – Present a practical model of Farm to School and Farm to Community programs that can be replicated across the country.

Contact Info REAL FOOD COLORADO www.realfoodcolorado.com 720.282.4067 [email protected]