The DPI Farm to School AmeriCorps Program is dedicated to connecting school food service directors and Wisconsin farmers to improve child nutrition. The recently launched Wisconsin Local Foods Database will help sustain and foster these relationships and to reach more food service directors and farmers.

The database provides information on a farmer’s ability to supply local produce to schools and about school food service directors looking to increase their local purchases and connect with Wisconsin farmers. Any interested Wisconsin farmers and school food service directors can sign up at no cost to be listed in the database. A dedicated AmeriCorps Farm to School member in each region of Wisconsin helps answer questions and reaches out to more producers and schools. Additionally, anyone in the general public can use it to find local foods in their area.

The Wisconsin Local Foods Database originated in 2017 by AmeriCorps Farm to School member Megan Wise. Megan served at Crawford County UW-Extension and created a database of local farmers to ensure that future Farm to School members and school food service directors maintained contact with their local farmers. Since then, the entire AmeriCorps Farm to School team has managed the project as an internal tool, expanding its scope statewide. With direct interaction with their students limited during the pandemic, the Farm to School members decided to create a website for the database and start sharing it publicly across the state.

“COVID-19 has been a stressful time for all of us, but school food service directors and farmers have been impacted in ways many of us were not,” stated AmeriCorps Farm to School program director Kara Ignasiak. “Despite schools going virtual and students staying home, school food service directors have continued to feed students all over Wisconsin. They have had to adapt and change their service models several times throughout the course of the pandemic. This was incredibly time consuming, which meant that spending time researching local farmers to buy fresh produce from was off the table. Likewise, farmers lost a lot of their markets to sell food when stores were limited. The creation of the Wisconsin Local Food Database will help alleviate the time strain on school food service directors having to research and find local farmers that had items that they wanted to use in their school meal program. Now schools can quickly look up an item and find a farmer in their area quickly. It has only been a few months since we have officially launched the database, but we are looking forward to surveying its users to determine its true impact on Wisconsin schools and producers this coming service year.”

To access the Wisconsin Local Food Database, go to https://tinyurl.com/WisconsinLocalFoodsDatabase

Twelve Partners for After School Success (PASS) AmeriCorps members traveled from Dane County to take part in an overnight service trip on June 11-12 to assist their fellow AmeriCorps members serving with Easterseals Wisconsin at Camp Wawbeek in the Wisconsin Dells. The trip was planned to help Easterseals Wisconsin prepare for their first week of campers this summer. At Camp Wawbeek, Easterseals AmeriCorps members will spend their summer providing intensive personal care and facilitating therapeutic recreation activities for individuals with disabilities and their families.

Over the two days, the PASS members worked on the sensory garden, made bulletin boards, planted flowers, and painted and refreshed the dining hall. Completing these projects provided volunteer assistance that has been more difficult for Easterseals Wisconsin to receive than in previous years due to COVID-19. Easterseals AmeriCorps member Hayley Curtsinger, who is serving as their AmeriCorps Volunteer Coordinator, explained that “due to COVID it has been really challenging to get volunteer groups onto camp. We were all so thankful that the PASS group was able to get here and that they were willing to go through all of our protocols. They were extremely flexible, and they were all willing to do whatever we needed. They truly embody what AmeriCorps is about and they should all be so proud of themselves.”

In addition to these service activities, the PASS members tie-dyed shirts, cooked their dinner over the campfire, hiked an accessible trail built by a previous AmeriCorps team, and spent lots of time bonding as a team after a year of virtual meetings. PASS program director Bonnie Erickson summed up the trip saying, “we laughed, got rained on, painted, designed, planted, and cooked over a campfire! It was a wonderful visit, and now we are ready to dive into summer programming and teaching social-emotional learning skills!”

This summer, the city of Wausau hosted its first Juneteenth celebration. A few of the main organizers of the event were alumni from NCAAP AmeriCorps, with current members and additional alumni operating an informational table at the event. Organizer and NCCAP alumna Gwen Taylor described the event as a “celebration of the emancipation day. This is a celebration of freeing slaves and that is to everyone’s benefit. So this celebration is for everyone. It is not at all an exclusive event. This is an event the entire community can come out and celebrate diversity in a country that’s hopefully moving forward.” (Read the full WSAU article here)

In addition to commemorating the holiday with speakers, live music, numerous foods, and other activities, attendees were able to receive a COVID-19 vaccine as part of a vaccination clinic through the Hmong and Hispanic Communication Network (H2N). Miah Medina, an NCCAP AmeriCorps alumni and the African American Community Coordinator for H2N, reflected on the celebration, saying she is “extremely grateful to be a part of multiple organizations that aim to make Wausau a safer community for all.” (Read full H2N press release here)

Following the event, NCCAP AmeriCorps Olivia Lemke member reflected on her experience, explaining that “the first Juneteenth celebration hosted in Wausau was a powerful event for the city. It was heart-warming to see the Wausau community come together to recognize the diversity in our area. I hope there are many steps like these in the future to promote diversity, with AmeriCorps given the opportunity to serve at these events as well, of course. All attendees were supportive of each other and their backgrounds, even when individuals were vulnerable and shared their stories, opinions, music, and/or poems during the open mic portion. In addition to all of the activities, 18 individuals received their COVID vaccine at this event!”

With the NCCAP AmeriCorps team operating an informational table at the event and multiple AmeriCorps alumni participating in the event, NCCAP AmeriCorps program director Steve Frodl described that “it felt both powerful and meaningful to participate in this inaugural Juneteenth celebration in Wausau. In the company of eight current NCCAP AmeriCorps members and six AmeriCorps Alums, and the 100+ participants, and 12 or so event organizers, I am proud to part of a community that appreciates and celebrates Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at all levels…Wausau’s Mayor, Katie Rosenberg, spoke and an overall atmosphere of compassion and acceptance prevailed… I am very proud of my hometown community for hosting this first ever Juneteenth activity, and I am hopeful that the momentum, the care, concern, and empathy will carry forward for generations to come. Thank you to the organizers for a job very well done, and to the participants for showing they care about the well-being of our community and future.”

The following is a reflection by Michael Marcheschi, who is serving as an AmeriCorps member with Teach for America Milwaukee as a 7th grade teacher at Lancaster School.

On Saturday, June 12, I organized and hosted an arts and gardening event with students and families at my school. I was able to get a grant and use those funds to redesign and implement gardens and art installations into the school’s courtyard. We planted about 100 plants and created a native prairie garden, a perennial garden, and an annual garden with hundreds of sunflowers. We had a great turnout, and the added green space and beautification will provide a much-needed space for students to have mental breaks and experience nature.

I am also working on creating new science, art, and math curriculum with the garden space. More events with students are going to happen over the course of the next school year. We will have a bulb planting day in the fall to plant tulips and daffodils, and then collect the seeds from the plants, where students will then grow them in class. We are going to then take those plants and host a native plant sale to bring in money for our school/arts department or any other curriculum needs.

This garden space will serve the students and their families for years to come, and the best has yet to happen. It was truly one of the best experiences of my life, and being able to make such a big impact my first year teaching is immensely fulfilling.

While attending the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Ana Ndahayo received information about serving with Partners for After School Success (PASS) AmeriCorps. After looking into the program, she discovered that PASS served children at Meadowood Neighborhood Center and Bridge Lake Point Waunona Neighborhood Center, which she had been a part of when she was growing up in Madison. Wanting to give back to her community and learn how to better facilitate programming and work with students, she decided to bring things full circle by serving as an AmeriCorps member with PASS.

Serving at Black Hawk Middle School this year, Ana has had a wide range of service experiences, describing that her year “started off a little bit different than how it's ending.” She explained that “we're in the middle of a pandemic, so I actually started off virtual all the time…Most of my work consists of academic coaching, and then facilitating after school programming, so a lot of that was virtual up until recently. We did a lot of virtual clubs…and fun things like that for after school, and then during the day I would spend a lot of time in teachers’ classes, specifically math in the sixth grade working with students on their math skills.” While the year started off virtually, she described that “I've recently transitioned to in-person programming. That has been really fun to get to safely see the kids and…have a good time.”

To learn more about her AmeriCorps service experience, the activities she has done with her students virtually and in-person as part of her after school clubs, her plans for after her service, and more, view Ana’s video interview with Serve Wisconsin where she reflects on her AmeriCorps experience.

The AmeriCorps members with the DPI Farm to School AmeriCorps Program helped schools and students throughout the state celebrate Wisconsin School Garden Day on May 20, 2021.

The date was marked by a proclamation from Governor Tony Evers marking Wisconsin School Garden Day and a visit by Lt. Governor Barnes to a school garden event at Lake View Elementary in Madison. The visit was guided by Farm to School AmeriCorps members Mari Verbeten and Renesha Carter, who serve at Rooted, which supports school gardens throughout Madison. Mari and Renesha described their role during this part of the statewide celebration, explaining that “every year the WI School Garden's Network hosts WI School Garden Day, and Lake View Elementary was honored by hosting Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes, State Senator Melissa Agard, and Samba Baldeh, a member of the State Assembly. We helped facilitate the planting portion of the event by pairing each representative to a student and assisting them in planting a seedling in the garden. The guests each spoke and then toured the school forest on the property. The event was live streamed to the librarians YouTube page for the rest of the school to watch.”

As part of this celebration, the Farm to School AmeriCorps members created a video promoting Wisconsin School Garden Day that shows the activities they are doing with students statewide in school gardens. In addition to the video the team created, here are some examples of the activities the Farm to School AmeriCorps members led to celebrate Wisconsin School Garden Day:

Serve Wisconsin | servewisconsin.wi.gov | AmeriCorps