Michigan Awarded Two Lake Michigan School Food System Innovation Hub Grants
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EmailMichigan organizations to receive awards from the Lake Michigan School Food System Innovation hub to build more local, more nourishing, and more loving school food systems in Michigan.
East Lansing, MI – Michigan organizations received funding from the Lake Michigan School Food System Innovation Hub to create more local, nourishing, and loved school meals across the Lake Michigan region, which includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Michigan provides over 190 million school meals to students across the state during the year, and each and every meal is powered by a dynamic system of farmers, food producers, processors, distributors, and more.
The Innovation Hub, convened by the Illinois Public Health Institute, provides two different types of grant awards to spark and support innovative ideas to strengthen school food systems and products. The Spark Awards and Innovation Collaborative Awards are funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Healthy Meals Incentives Initiative to stimulate the creation of a resilient, equitable, and nutritious school food system. Awardees are slated to begin their projects in August 2024.
“We are thrilled to fund partners that are driving change at every part of the school food system,” said May Tsupros, Director of Farm to Institution Programs at MSU Center for Regional Food Systems. “In addition to providing local and nourishing school meals to children in Michigan, the projects supported by the Innovation Hub will boost the local economy by supporting farmers and food producers that have been affected by inequitable systems.”
Michigan State University’s Center for Regional Food Systems is working alongside the Illinois Public Health Institute, and other national and regional partners in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin to create the Lake Michigan School Food System Innovation Hub, especially prioritizing communities that do not have equitable access to resources. The Innovation Hub will fuel change for Michigan’s school food system, creating abundance—including funding, support, and nourishing food choices—for our farms, local businesses, schools, and communities.
"We look forward to funding organizations who have trusted relationships with their communities to tailor these innovative programs to meet their community needs,” said Dr. Crystal Pirtle Tyler, CEO of the Illinois Public Health Institute. “We understand the pivotal role school nutrition plays in the lives of students across the Lake Michigan region and we look forward to the opportunity to support and grow these innovative programs with our awardees.”
The organizations that are receiving funding in Michigan include:
- Innovation Collaborative Award: Partridge Creek Farm, Ishpeming, Michigan
- Spark Award: Kalamazoo Valley Community College, Kalamazoo, Michigan
“Through these awards, the Lake Michigan School Food System Innovation Hub is helping communities address historic harms by supporting immediate and systems-level change that will spur local economies, strengthen our food systems and create more nourishing school meals,” said Kathryn Bernstein, Food Systems and Nutrition Policy Program Director at the Illinois Public Health Institute. Future iterations of these awards will be available in 2025. Learn more about the Lake Michigan School Food System Innovation Hub, see a full list of funded partners across the Lake Michigan region and connect with a State Lead today at InnovateSchoolFood.org.
For the full list of awardees released by the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, please refer to the School Food System Transformation Challenge Sub-Grants website or their Press Release.
Contact: Megan McManus, mcmanu60@msu.edu
About Lake Michigan School Food System Innovation Hub
Lake Michigan School Food System Innovation Hub nurtures community-driven collaborations that reimagine students’ meals. By working together, we’re building pathways for local, nutritious and culturally relevant food to reach more schools across Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Indiana — especially in areas that don’t have equitable access to resources. We offer funding, training and other help to collectives of schools, school districts, organizations, farmers, producers, suppliers and distributors who are transforming our school food system to better serve our communities. We are funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and convened by the Illinois Public Health Institute. Organizations leading the initiative include Seven Generations Ahead (Illinois), Michigan State University’s Center for Regional Food Systems (Michigan), NWI Food Council (Indiana), Kids Forward (Wisconsin), healthTIDE (Wisconsin), National Farm to School Network, Chicago Food Policy Action Council and Action for Healthy Kids. InnovateSchoolFood.org
About Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems
The Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems advances regionally-rooted food systems through applied research, education, and outreach by uniting the knowledge and experience of diverse stakeholders with that of MSU faculty and staff. Our work fosters a thriving economy, equity, and sustainability for Michigan, the nation, and the planet by advancing systems that produce food that is healthy, green, fair, and affordable.
Learn more at foodsystems.msu.edu.
MSU Center for Regional Food System's Michigan Farm to School and institutional food procurement work is conducted in collaboration with MSU Extension and is also funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and Michigan Department of Education.
