Midwest Food Connection

Since 1993, The Midwest Food Connection’s teachers have been visiting classrooms and immersing children in the healthy foods they need. In the 2010/11 school year we reached over 6,000 students with our positive and life-changing messages. During our lessons, children make their own salads, sample tasty cooked greens, learn of the effects of sweets in their bodies, and plant seedlings for their own gardens.

The Midwest Food Connection has developed an extensive curriculum in natural foods, healthy eating, and sustainable and organic farming. We teach 4-lesson units in individual classrooms, typically visiting once a week for a month. Last year, we visited 44 schools and 8 school districts in the 7-county area around Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota.

In addition, MFC leads field trips to local organic farms in spring and fall. Once there, children transplant seedlings, dig and investigate healthy soils, and harvest their own treats. We have partnerships with nine active farms that are eager, once or twice a year, to create life-changing experiences for young ones.

MFC benefits from the strong financial support of six natural food co-ops. Yet the needs and demands of schools, most of whom have limited resources for education in healthy eating, far outweigh our current capacity. Your support will directly grow this capacity, and allow more children to reexamine their current eating habits and learn about the many affordable and delicious options they have. We are grateful to count you as friend and donor.