In Leland Public Schools, Laura Miller, Student Advocate and Farm to School Coordinator, connects kids in the classroom to what Food Service Director Dave Ruszel is serving. She provides them with samples of items he plans to make, such as winter squash soup and kohlrabi snack sticks. At the same time, she teaches them how the nutrients in the foods affect their health, and how and where they were grown.

Elissa Penczar teaches Catering and Culinary Management at the Muskegon Area Career Tech Center operated by Muskegon Area Intermediate School District. She says tying her program to the expanded farm to school efforts made possible by 10 Cents a Meal* is a big win for her students who come from all of the high schools in Muskegon County.

If a food service director serves beets*, how might classroom teachers get students excited about eating them while also meeting their own teaching schedules and objectives? In the Traverse City Area Public Schools and Boyne Falls Public Schools this year, they do so by tapping into a collection of lessons vetted by curriculum specialists at Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District.