Put Local On Your Tray

From This Land: Honoring Native Foods of Winter

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Put Local On Your Tray Native Foods Banner

Along with Narragansett artist, farmer and educator, Dawn M. Spears, Put Local On Your Tray is pleased to announce a new campaign series called, “From This Land: Honoring Native Foods“. The first installment of the series looks at native foods of winter, including maple syrup!
You can find more information about artist Dawn M. Spears, Tray’s goal with the campaign, and many resources for educators including online readings, maps, recipes, and downloadable handouts (original materials created by UConn Extension’s Put Local On Your Tray and Dawn M. Spears).

Click Here

Register Today For “Bringing the Farm to the School” Training

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PLOYT producer training workshop flyer

An organized partnership between Put Local on Your Tray, Connecticut Department of Agriculture, UConn Extension, and Connecticut Farm To School Collaborative is excited to offer “Bringing the Farm to the School” a producer training for CT Farmers to navigate the opportunities and challenges of selling into public K-12 schools!

Learn more HERE!

Did you know that Districts across the state are poised to receive federal dollars that can only be spent specifically on fresh and minimally processed local product! This creates an amazing opportunity for farmers across the state to get started in farm to school and scale up to meet this opportunity.

This free, day-long workshop will bring together farmers and public-school food service directors to learn, connect and share best practices, success stories and frustrations.

Register HERE

Who is this for?

  • Fruit, vegetable, meat and added value dairy producers
  • Farm businesses of all sizes and growing practices
  • Growers looking to expand their market
  • producers who think the farm to school market is not for them because there are too many barriers.

The barriers are not as high as you may think! Here is the registration link again!

For service providers and supports interested in participating please email shannon.raider@uconn.edu.

Carrot Recipes

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carrots

Did you know carrots are packed with Vitamin A?  This vitamin is a key nutrient for healthy eyes!

Carrots can be a great and healthy addition to any meal. Put Local On Your Tray has complied a list of carrot recipes to increase their use in school meals. View the recipes here: putlocalonyourtray.uconn.edu/carrots-2

Rooting for Winter – Put Local on Your Tray

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Are you root-ing for winter?
Winter roots include carrots, beets, potatoes, and more! Click here for ideas on how to incorporate these delicious roots into your meals.

Put Local on Your Tray’s “Root-ing for Winter” campaign is working towards connecting schools with local farmers to increase the incorporation of local root vegetables in school meals.

Click to find additional information and resources

PLOYT winter

 

HardCORE CRUNCH: Apple & Pear Activity Worksheets!

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apple and pear crunchOctober is National Farm to School Month and Put Local On Your Tray has apple and pear activity worksheets to share! These worksheets include a coloring page, apple fun facts, a maze, and a delicious apple-themed recipe from New England Dairy. The worksheets are in English and Spanish. These can be distributed and shared with teachers, with school lunches and special classes. 

Click here to fill out an order form.

 

Meet Alyssa Benoit: Sustainable Food Systems Intern

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Hi! My name is Alyssa Benoit and I am interning with Sustainable Food Systems Educator Jiff Martin through UConn CAHNR Extension. I am a rising senior at UConn majoring in Allied Health Sciences, and in the Fast-Track program for a Master’s in Public Administration (MPA) through the Department of Public Policy. I help with communications on the initiatives Heart CT Grown, Put Local on Your Tray, Taste of Mansfield, and a project for Northeastern CT direct-to-consumer farm sales. In my free time, I enjoy trail running, rock climbing, and gardening!

How to Make a Strawberry Kale Smoothie with Molly Basak-Smith

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Molly Basak-Smith of our UConn Extension Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) walks through how to make a strawberry kale smoothie as part of our Slurpie challenge with the Put Local On Your Tray program. Make your own smoothie at home and join us in the Great Smoothie Slurp!

 

The Great Spring Smoothie Slurp!

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vegetables and smoothieSLURP your way into Summer

With Put Local on Your Tray and New England Dairy!

Spring is the perfect time to SOURCE, SERVE, and CELEBRATE local.

Popular spring harvests includes our dark leafy greens like Kale, our colorful fruits like Strawberries and, of course, we can’t forget our local Dairy products, which are in season all year round. 

Join the Great Smoothie Slurp by using local dairy, and seasonal strawberries, and greens to make a  slurp-sational smoothie.

We would love to hear and see your loudest SLURP!

Take a short clip of you and your family SLURPING your smoothies, and post on social media and tag:

@/# YOUR School

@putlocalonyourtray

#SmoothieSlurpChallenge

You can even receive free materials to share this delicious smoothie recipe with your community!

For more information on how to source your ingredients locally and how to receive free materials please visit:

https://putlocalonyourtray.uconn.edu/springsmoothieslurp/

 

Communities Feed Kids

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Communities Feed Kids, Share your story advertisementThere are amazing stories from across Connecticut about the efforts being made to feed our communities.

Responding to COVID-19 requires generosity and ingenuity.

We recognize, more than ever, it is clear the roles schools play and the necessity of school meal programs to connect and serve healthy and local food with our communities.

Put local on Your Tray is teaming up with Northeast farm-to-school folks to collect stories and photos of how #CommunitiesFeedKids in this pandemic.

Our goal is to spread gratitude and inspiration for the hard work school nutrition professionals are doing to feed kids during the Covid-19 crisis, lifting up school meals and how critically important they are so we build toward a changed, more resilient system in the future. 

We invite you to share the story of your community feeding kids in response to COVID-19! #CommunitiesFeedKids

To learn more please visit:

https://putlocalonyourtray.uconn.edu/

 

 

Rooting for Root Vegetables

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illustration of root vegetables with the text root recipes under it

We’re rooting for winter with root recipes from our Put Local On Your Tray program. Visit https://putlocalonyourtray.uconn.edu/root-recipes/ to find some warm, filling and nutritious ideas for how to cook carrots, parsnips, beets, radish, or another root vegetable.