Health News

October is National Farm to School Month, a time to celebrate the grassroots efforts to bring healthy, locally grown food to California’s schools! In addition, Farm to School Month coincides with Food Day (October 24) and National School Lunch Week (October 15-19). We want help spread the word about all of the wonderful efforts to provide delicious and healthy school meals, promote school garden education and supporting local agriculture in our state. With so many ways to celebrate, we want to create synergy among all the different efforts, and spread the word about resources available to help you plan your local event. Here are a few resources and easy activities that will help you celebrate Farm to School in October:

• Help spread the word about National Farm to School Month! Visitwww.farmtoschoolmonth.org, to find helpful resources like a communications toolkit,posters and fact sheets that will help you inform and build excitement in your community. Here you will also find event ideas to celebrate Farm to School – such as inviting a chef or a local farmer to visit your school, featuring seasonal fruits and vegetables in the lunch or breakfast menu, or hosting a community fair with parents, teachers and students.
• Be a part of Farm to School Counts by pledging to serve local food and participate in Farm to School activities during October. You can register your school, childcare site, and community event. Everyone who enters a pledge and completes the follow-up survey will be entered to win a $500 cash prize for their program.
• If you are hosting a local food or healthy school food and garden event - put it on the map! 
• Check out the Eat Real Curriculum created to support Food Day efforts nationwide. Use it throughout the month to highlight the importance of eating ‘real’ food to your students.
• To stay connected to all the happenings in California follow CA Farm to School onTwitter or like us on Facebook.

Yelena Zeltser
CA Farm to School Program Manager

http://www.cafarmtoschool.org

P.S. Check out  HealthCorps University, “train the trainer” professional development program that makes the HealthCorps principles and curriculum available to virtually any school.  The HealthCorps curriculum is composed of three sections — Mental Resilience, Nutrition and Fitness. This curriculum is aimed at both educating students and providing a holistic and relevant view of the role health plays in their lives. For more information, please contact HCU@HealthCorps.org 

http://healthcorps.org 

Ingrid Cheng @fitnesswla

Health Advocate

http://ingridcheng.com