The Maine Department of Education (DOE), in collaboration with the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry, recently launched two sets of videos to help support Maine school nutrition programs around the state. Links to the two sets of videos are available below:
- Farm to School Videos – showcase the partnerships between farms and schools in an effort to grow the Farm to School movement.
- Culinary Videos – assist school nutrition professionals in scratch cooking and utilizing local products. The videos can help build culinary skills in a variety of areas such as fruit and vegetable preparation, food safety, time management, and using local ingredients in school recipes.
The Team plans to continue building the video series by incorporating Maine dairy and seafood, among other proteins, in school recipes as well as other educational videos in the near future.
The Department would like to extend a special thank you to the people who made these videos a success:
- Chef Samantha Gasbarro (Consultant)
- Mike Flynn (School Nutrition Director for RSU 12)
- Alisa Roman (School Nutrition Director for Lewiston Public Schools)
- Chef Heidi Parent (Culinary Arts Instructor from Capital Area Technical Center)
- Josh Girard (Girard Farm)
- Kelby Young (Olde Haven Farm)
- Trent Emery (Emery Farm)
- Ryan Roderick (Chef and Wellness Coordinator for RSU 14)
- Justin Deri (School Garden and Greenhouse Manager from Falmouth Schools)
- Martha Poliquin (School Nutrition Director, Falmouth Schools)
In addition to the videos, the Child Nutrition Team also offers in-person and webinar trainings. The next culinary training will be on February 21st and will be geared towards new and trending school breakfast ideas. Check out all their training opportunities in the Child Nutrition calendar, you can also stay up-to-date on child Nutrition news by joining the Child Nutrition email list.
All of the the videos are available on the Maine DOE’s website here: www.maine.gov/farmtoschool. For more information about the Farm-to-School Program, please visit this website.