Birchwood Boost: July-September 2017
From July–September, Birchwood BOOST is partnering with Midwest Food Connection to empower children to make healthy decisions around food. Birchwood Boost supports local nonprofits whose work aligns with the Birchwood Café‘s “Good Real Food” values. Food connects us all (everyone eats!) and food systems are a critical point of action for addressing human and environmental health, climate change, and social justice issues.
BOOST EVENTS
Meet Midwest Food Connection
Food + Farming Sing-Along
NEWS
BECOME A SUPPORTER
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.
TEACHING CHILDREN TO EAT WELL
Midwest Food Connection (MFC) sends educators into elementary school classrooms to teach about healthy eating, local foods, as well as sustainable and organic agriculture.
- 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 regionally 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.
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 2015/6, we taught in 60 schools and taught over 1,000 individual lessons.
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Facebook Posts
Each month we'll be showcasing a different local food that we use in our lessons. We'll share fun facts and recipes each week that relate to our featured food. Our featured food for September is APPLES! 🍏 🌳 🍎
Enjoy these 20 fun facts about Honeycrisp apples for the Honeycrisp's 20th anniversary on grocery shelves!
20 things you didn't know about Minnesota's famous Honeycrisp apples
startribune.com
Not only is the Honeycrisp apple celebrating 20 years of good taste, but the Minnesota-made favorite also is reminding us that it's thoroughly rooted in the North Star State.
The funds raised through our Birchwood BOOST through the end of September will go toward our teaching in six schools in the Birchwood Cafe neighborhood and in North Minneapolis where we don't currently have funding to teach.
Anne Sullivan Communication Center is one of those schools! Head over to Birchwood this September to help support our teaching in this wonderful school.
Have you been to the Birchwood Cafe yet to support Midwest Food Connection during our Birchwood BOOST? If not, don't worry, you've still got time (until the end of September).
If you really want to stretch your BOOST dollars even farther, consider joining us next Thursday evening for our Dine-Out Night, when the Birchwood will donate 35% of their proceeds from dinner to MFC!
Plus there will be beer tastings from Fair State Brewing Cooperative and a talk from guest speaker Bertrand Weber of Minneapolis Public Schools Culinary & Wellness Services. We hope to see you there!
#BetheBOOST
Healthy Meals // Happy Kids Dine Out Night
September 28, 2017, 5:00pm - September 28, 2017, 9:00pm
Dine out and do good -- we’re donating 35% of our proceeds from dinner to Midwest Food Connection. Featuring a talk from Bertrand Weber, Director of Culinary and Nutrition Services at Minneapolis Public Schools & beer tastings from Fair State Brewing Cooperative! This event is part of Birchwood BOOST, a partnership program that supports nonprofits whose work aligns with Birchwood's values around Good Real Food. Food connects us all and is a key way to address health, climate & social justice issues. Learn more online at birchwoodcafe.com/community/BOOST
In our "Locally Grown" lessons, we teach kids about local farms and the faces behind our MN grown foods, like the folks at Organic Valley. This farm was founded on the basic principle of caring for the Earth. These farmers are doing it right!
The Food Company Crazy Enough To Change Everything | Organic Valley
Call us crazy, but we actually believed we could change how food is grown in America. This is the story of how our small co-op of organic family farms has be...
"I wish you can come back and teach us more. When my aunty buy me the date from Mississippi Market I did not like it, but when I eat the date from you, it taste good. Thank you so much!!" - 2nd grader taught in 2016
Nothing like a kid thank-you to end your week on a good note. Here's to inspiring kids to eat their dates and veggies!