The Foods They Are a-Changin’

An Interview with Our Director!

Minnesota Food Charter recently interviewed our executive director, Uli Koester, about the importance of passing on food skills and introducing children to new cuisines.

Check out this article about how we keep our curriculum relevant in a changing world. And take a look at the good works that the MN Food Charter is doing to provide Minnesotans with equal access to affordable, safe, and healthy food.

TEACHING CHILDREN TO EAT WELL

Midwest Food Connection (MFC) brings educational adventures in food, cooking, and gardening to children and their families.

 

  • We provide children with opportunities to study and taste natural and organic foods.
  • We create an understanding in children of the origins and traditions of locally produced foods.
  • We teach children about the methods and benefits of organic and sustainable agriculture.
  • We organize and lead field trips to local diversified farms.

What We’re Reading: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

As you come out of hibernation this spring, Braiding Sweetgrass is the book to read to reawaken your relationship with the land. Through delicious sentences and a slow reverence for the natural world, Robin Wall Kimmerer shares indigenous wisdom about ecology in this...
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Climate Conscious Cuisine: What Our Kids Know

What happens when you ask kids to think about climate change? They're instincts are always on. Show a classroom of 2nd graders a picture of pesticide run-off from farms, the resulting algae blooms in our great lakes, the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico -- and the room...
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Haruko Ruggiero Leaves Midwest Food Connection

Uli Koester, Executive Director                     I was teaching an MFC class at Barton Open School in 2002 or so when the student teacher in the class approached me with great intent. She loved the lessons I was teaching and would I tell her some more. A year or...
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An Intern’s Take on MFC

By Carter D'Angelo, fall semester intern from Macalester College I have spent the past few months talking to teachers and administrators about Midwest Food Connection. I am from a small town in Massachusetts and grew up surrounded by small family farms. I have always...
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Reflections from Ruthie, our Carleton College Winter Break Extern

Kindergarteners at Lake Harriet showing connections during Emily’s Organic Farming lesson “If you have a connection, you can make two connected circles with your fingers,” said Midwest Food Connection Educator, Emily Houser, to a group of kindergarteners at Thomas...
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SUPPORT US

Over the years major support from foundations, school PTA’s, and natural food cooperatives have provided a strong funding base for Midwest Food Connection. However, we need to grow our individual donor base in order to reach more schools. If you would like to support us via in-kind donations or through volunteer work, please contact us. We welcome your assistance in reaching more children with our natural foods awareness programs.

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OUR PROGRAMS

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WORKING WITH YOUR SCHOOL

Please contact us to find out how Midwest Food Connection can partner with your school to bring our food and gardening curriculum to your classroom. Click the link to learn more about our programs.

Our extensive curriculum covers topics from whole grains to local produce to immigrant cuisines. We have created elementary school lessons specifically for kindergarten, primary, and intermediate grades, and offer a new middle school curriculum as well. Each lesson has been carefully polished through frequent use in a variety of classroom settings.

Midwest Food Connection has partnered with schools in the Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota area since 1994. During the school year of 2016/7, we taught in 52 schools and taught over 750 individual lessons.

Dear Uli, Thank you for bringing all that delicious food and I never knew so much about food. It was so fun. My favorite food was the kale. I didn’t want you to leave. You were one of the best teachers. I learned a lot about three new seeds.

Your friend, Christopher