Join students of all ages, from preschool to college, along with individuals across the Great Lakes Region states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio, in celebrating National Farm to School Month and Food Day by crunching into locally and regionally grown apples at NOON on Friday, October 24, 2014 (EST and CST). This collective crunch encourages healthy eating and supports farm to school and other local food purchasing initiatives throughout the region. It’s also a fun way to connect food and nutrition to all kinds of classroom curriculum – from science to art! The Great Lakes Great Apple Crunch provides your school, district, county or region the framework to host a successful local food event this October. Of course, not everyone can Crunch on Food Day, so we encourage you to Crunch anytime in October to celebrate National Farm to School Month. More information is available online at www.facebook.com/GreatLakesGreatAppleCrunch . Get Your Apples One of the first steps in coordinating your event is to explore your options for purchasing local apples. There are a variety of ways you can introduce the Great Lakes Great Apple Crunch at your school. You can work with school food service staff to include apples in the school lunch line or salad bar on October 24th. You may be able to source local apples with funds from the the DoD Fresh program in your state. If your school qualifies, consider using your Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP) funds to purchase fresh apples for the Great Lakes Great Apple Crunch. You can also find local apples by contacting local apple growers in your area, or asking your distributor to source local apples for you.

Want more information on how to purchase local apples and other local foods? Check out these resources from the region. Minnesota Toolkit for School Foodservice http://www.extension.umn.edu/food/farm-to-school/toolkit/sourcing-food/ Purchasing Michigan Products: A Step by Step Guide http://www.mifarmtoschool.msu.edu/assets/farmToSchool/docs/MIFTS_Purchasing_Guide.pdf Farm to School in Ohio http://farmtoschool.osu.edu/downloads/pdf/OhioFarmToSchoolGuidebook.pdf Wisconsin Farm to School Toolkit for School Nutrition Programs http://www.cias.wisc.edu/toolkits/ USDA’s Procuring Local Food for Child Nutrition Programs http://www.fns.usda.gov/farmtoschool/procuring-local-foods

Get to Crunch Time Include a variety of people in your Great Lakes Great Apple Crunch planning. Engage with students, parents, community members, legislators and more to plan for the event. At the school level, be sure to work with teachers, food service staff, administrators and school board members. The more people helping to plan the countdown to your crunch, the better! And don’t forget to reach out to local media personnel to help you highlight your Apple Crunch activities in the community. Consider increasing awareness and excitement for your Apple Crunch by holding an all-school assembly or announcing the event in school newsletters or e-mails. Use this as an opportunity to ask for student, staff and community volunteers to lead classroom or cafeteria Apple Crunch Countdowns or educational activities. To ensure everyone can enjoy the Crunch and that apples don’t go to waste, consider cutting apples into halves or slices for younger students. Make the Great Lakes Great Apple Crunch into a schoolwide celebration by pairing older students and younger students for crunch time. And don’t forget to appoint a parent, teacher, student or community member to act as photographer and capture all the action of the Great Apple Crunch!

Connect to the Classroom Crunching into that apple is just one part of the Great Lakes Great Apple experience. Apple-based learning activities can contribute to classroom curriculum to meet learning requirements for language, math, science and more!

For younger students, use the Apple Crunch as an activity to practice descriptive language skills. After students taste the apple, ask them to describe what they perceived with each of their senses. Apples are also a great way to discuss the parts of a fruit and how they grow. Check out the resources below for more apple themed learning activities for preschool to third grade students.  California Harvest of the Month Apple Resources: http://www.harvestofthemonth.cdph.ca.gov/download/Fall/21712/Ed_News_Apples.pdf  Apple Posters from Wood County, Wisconsin: http://getactivewoodcounty.org/Portals/0/2014%20Product%20Inserts/Apple%20Insert.pdf  Eat.Think.Grow. Apple Lessons: http://eatthinkgrow.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/KF41.pdf  Edible Schoolyard Apple Harvest Activities: https://edibleschoolyard.org/node/5620  Farm to Preschool Apple Packet: http://www.ourcommunityourkids.org/media/2981/Farm%20to%20PreK_Sept09_Apples.pdf For older elementary students, apples fit right into math class. To demonstrate factions, ask students to think about all the different ways to cut their apples into even pieces. Ask students to list all the fractions they can create and try to develop word problems with those fractions. Apples are also “ripe” for scientific experimentation. Students can perform basic science experiments to evaluate the ripeness and starch content of their apples. For more math, science and language arts projects, see the links below.  Ohio Apples Teacher’s Guide: http://www.ohioapples.com/pdf/4-6_teachersguide.pdf  Utah Ag in the Classroom Apple Lessons: http://tinyurl.com/apple-utah The Great Lakes Great Apple Crunch is an opportunity for middle and high school students to explore their local food system. Students can discuss the benefits of eating locally and regionally grown foods as they calculate how far their average meal travels to get to the plate or source food for their own lunchroom.  Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom: http://oklahmoa4h.okstate.edu/aitc/lessons/upper  Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Youth Leadership Curriculum: http://www.iatp.org/documents/farm-to-school-youth-leadership-curriculum-all-lessonsand-worksheets All students can learn from new maps developed by the National Agricultural Statistics Service. With these maps all students can find out where foods from the five main food groups represented in MyPlate are grown in the United States. The maps offer a variety of ways to explore agriculture, nutrition, math and science in the classroom. The maps are a perfect intersection of nutrition and agriculture education as they engage students in discovering agriculture in their own communities, while also illustrating how those foods fit into the MyPlate recommendations. http://blogs.usda.gov/2014/08/05/agcensus-and-myplate-serve-up-lessonsin-math-nutrition-and-more/ Engage with Your Community The Great Lakes Great Apples Crunch is an opportunity to reach beyond the school walls and connect with the larger community. Schedule a visit to a local orchard so students can see first-hand what it

takes to grow apples. You could also invite an apple grower or other local farmer to visit your school for story time, to talk about growing apples or even to be part of Crunch Time! You can also reach out to a local dietician, nutrition educator or doctor and ask her or him to share the benefits and importance of eating all fruits and vegetables. Nutrition and health professionals can share why and how an apple fits into a healthy, balanced diet. Local college students involved in nutrition or agriculture programs can be great guest speakers to activity leaders too. Invite local community leaders to celebrate the Great Lakes Great Apple Crunch with you. Contact your local Chamber of Commerce to connect with local business owners, invite members of the school board or reach out to your local legislators like your mayor or other representatives. Share Your Story! Be sure to let local newspaper and television reporters know about your event by sending a press release or other invitation to join your event. Use your Apple Crunch event as a great way to share the message about your farm to school programs, Farm to School Month and Food Day! We want to see and hear students from all across the Great Lakes Region as they crunch into local apples on Friday, October 24th. Get out your cameras, smartphones, or video cameras and take a crunch byte from your school to share with others across the region and the country. Be sure to share your crunch byte photo, video or sound clip on the Great Lakes Great Apple Crunch Facebook Page at www.facebook.com/GreatLakesGreatAppleCrunch. You can also use the hashtags #GreatAppleCrunch, #F2SMonth and #FoodDay2014 to share your images on Twitter and Instagram. Make sure to have appropriate school photo release forms for any students featured in your photos. For More Information Vanessa Herald Great Lakes Regional Lead Agency – National Farm to School Network University of Wisconsin-Madison, Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems 608-263-6064 or [email protected] Read more about farm to school in your state at: www.farmtoschool.org/our-network Find National Farm to School Network Resources: www.farmtoschool.org Discover Farm to School Month Information: www.farmtoschoolmonth.org Learn about Food Day and find curriculum and resources: www.foodday.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: {NAME} {SCHOOL/ORGANIZATION} {PHONE} {EMAIL OR OTHER CONTACT} October 24, 2014 It’s Great Lakes Great Apple Crunch Time, {TOWN/SCHOOL NAME} {TOWN/SCHOOL NAME} is joining schools, preschools, colleges and individuals across the Great Lakes Region states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio in celebrating National Farm to School Month and Food Day by crunching into {CHOOSE: LOCALLY, REGIONALLY, ETC.} apples on Food Day, October 24th at NOON (EST or CST) for the first annual Great Lakes Great Apple Crunch! {PROVIDE A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF YOUR EVENT, ACTIVITIES, LOGISTICS, HOW PARENTS/COMMUNITY CAN BE INVOLVED} This collective crunch encourages healthy eating and supports farm to school and local food initiatives throughout the Great Lakes Region. {DESCRIBE HOW IT CONNECTS LEARNING OR OTHER RELATED EFFORTS AT YOUR SCHOOL}. For more information, or to crunch with us, please contact {CONTACT NAME} at {CONTACT PHONE AND/OR EMAIL}. Regional partners have created a guide to help every Great Lakes child crunch into a delicious apple this October! For more information about the Great Lakes Great Apple Crunch and receive your guide, visit www.Facebook.com/GreatLakesGreatAppleCrunch. -end-