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Taste Washington Day 2011 - Wednesday, September 28th!

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La Conner School District's Taste Washington Day menu featured broccoli from Hedlin Farm in Mt. Vernon

 We anticipate Taste Washington Day 2011 to be a popular event once again. 

The WSDA Farm-to-School Program and the Washington School Nutrition Association (WSNA) partner to sponsor Taste Washington Day, an annual celebration of Washington grown foods served in school meals.

Now is the time to get involved with Taste Washington Day!  Make farm connections early to make the most of our bountiful fall harvest, and use Taste Washington Day to launch into October—“Farm to School Month”.

Participating schools around the state engage in all sorts of ways including:

  • Serving a locally-sourced meal
  • Providing education and activities to recognize the region's agricultural bounty
  • Inviting  farmers to lunch
  • Arranging school visits to area farms
  • Connecting Future Farmers of America high school students with elementary students

Check out the sample menus for this year and additional promotional materials at the bottom of this page. We encourage you to adjust the menu to reflect seasonal availability of products grown on farms in your area. Last year schools reported serving carrots with the tops, fresh melons, cheese from a local creamery, beef from a local farmer (processed in a USDA approved facility) and fresh corn on the cob.

Sample Menu 1

Washington Baked Russet Potatoes w/ Toppings Protein Topping Options
(Beef and Lentil Chili(L), Broccoli(DG)and Cheese Sauce, or Beef Taco Meat)
Veggie Toppings (Sweet Onions, Tomatoes, Steamed Broccoli(DG),
Corn and Black Bean Salsa(L))
Whole Wheat Dinner Roll(WG)
Washington Fresh Fruit (Try apples, pears, blueberries, raspberries, peaches, plums and pluots!)
Brownie
Low Fat Milk


Sample Menu 2
Chicken Drumstick
Roasted Potatoes or Winter Squash
Whole Wheat Dinner Roll(WG)
 Fresh Green Salad (with carrots(O), roasted winter squash cubes(O), golden beets(O), or dark leafy greens(DG), and lentils(L)or beans(L)for a vegetarian protein option)
Washington Fresh Fruit (Consider apples, pears, blueberries, raspberries, peaches, plums and pluots!)
Brownie
Low Fat Milk

Note: New USDA proposed nutrition standards include requirements for dark green vegetables, orange vegetables and legumes, and whole grains. We’ve highlighted those items with these symbols in the menus above: (O) = Orange vegetables, (DG) = Dark Green, (L) = Legumes, (WG).

 

"Taste Washington Day offers our kids a chance to establish a deeper connection and develop a better understanding of our state's food system, from farm to fork and each step in between. The more opportunities our children have to learn about the people, time effort and resources necessary to turn a seed into a crop, the more they will appreciate the food on their plates. As the next generation, it will be up to them to continue our state's agricultural heritage and history."

Excerpted from the Congressional Record of the 111th Congress
introduced by Hon. Jay Inslee
[link to full text]

 

Taste Washington Day Success in 2010
In celebration of the diversity and abundance of Washington's harvest season, and to share this with school children and school communities across the state, the WSDA Farm-to-School Program and the Washington School Nutrition Association (WSNA) partnered with schools and farms to develop seasonal menus featuring Washington-grown food to be served September 29, 2010.

 Click here for a list of Participating Farms and Schools.

The WSDA Farm-to-School program helped school buyers source Washington produce, develop purchasing relationships with farms, and request Washington-grown produce from distributors.  We also helped schools add educational activities to the day, whether that meant posters in the cafeteria, inviting a farmer to lunch, or visiting a farm, farmers market or school garden. Here are a few ways schools participated in Taste Washington Day this past year:

In Riverview School District, “high school Future Farmers of America (FFA) club members visited each school in the district during lunch and handed out samples of locally grown produce and talked with students about their products. They were a very positive representation of agriculture and really helped to make the event a success at each school.”
– Participating School Nutrition Director

La Conner School District put together this delicious meal on Taste Washington Day:

  • Locally grown russet baked potatoes and ham julienne
  • Cheese sauce made with cheese from Golden Glen Creamery
  • Green onions, broccoli florets, and other produce from Hedlin Farms and Swanson Brothers Farm
  • Jonagold apples from Gordon Skagit Farm
  • Chocolate cake with raspberry butter cream, using raspberries from Swanson Brothers

Follow-up surveys from the event indicate that $17,000 were spent on Washington grown products for that day’s lunch, and schools anticipated spending approximately $90,000 on Washington products in the following six months.  Individual farms reported sales as high as $8,250 on the single day.

“We are proud to be able to serve our school districts. We are an apple farm and they are the perfect market for our small apples.”
- Eastern Washington Apple Grower

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Last Updated: 8/30/2011