INSPIRING KIDS 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.

Give to the Max

Give to the Max to support food education!

Across Minnesota, people are investing in the work they believe in. Show us you care about the health of our children by making a donation to Midwest Food Connection today.

The average elementary student receives just 3.4 hours of food education each year. Every day, students practice math, learn science, study language, read, and write. Yet food education is nowhere in the curriculum.  Let’s give all of our students the education they deserve.

Help us to close the gap by giving today.

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.

Growing Good Caretakers

At Midwest Food Connection we inspire kids to eat well. On the surface that looks like preparing spring salads and wild rice in the classroom. Tasting global fruits and discovering new flavors. Hearing a story about grains around the world and learning about their...
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2017-2018 by the Numbers and Photos

As we look forward to another year of teaching, we’d like to take a moment to reflect on our past year. During the 2017-2018 school year, we taught: 862 lessons in 54 schools in 7 school districts. We taught about 7,200 students in total, about half of whom we taught...
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Connecting To Our Roots: Farm Trips with MFC

In early May, 71 kindergarteners from Christina Huddleston Elementary visited My MN Farmer, a family run farm in Montgomery, MN. This farm grows produce for CSA members and the Minneapolis Public Schools, raises chickens and bunnies and cows and sheep, and always has...
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Our Top Five Tips for Gardening with Kids

As garden educators, we MFC staff have the opportunity to work with students in their school gardens every fall and spring. Here are some of our thoughts about getting kids involved in gardening! 1. Let them choose! Even as an adult, gardening is all about...
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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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OUR PROGRAMS

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Fall 1

Fall 2

Middle School

Winter

Spring

 

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