Oelwein Community Schools

Connecting kids to their food

Oelwein is one of the six Farm to School pilots for this year.  This page highlights some of their projects and activities.

Videos from Oelwein:

Cooking School for School Cooks - Stir Fry

(9/26/11) Oelwsin school food service staff are sharpening their cooking skills by attending 5th Season Workshops hosted by the Northeast Iowa Food & Fitness Initiative Farm to School program.  Guest Chef Jason Skarin from Luther Collage led a stir-fry workshop at Decorah Middle School.  Food service staff prepared and froze stir-fry vegetables from the school garden and local farmers. . Read more.

Oelwein School Food Service Workers Complete ServSafe Training

(August 2011) School food service employees from five school districts participated in a day-long food safety in-service taught by Iowa State University Extension specialist Cindy Baumgartner.  The training was part of the Farm to School project in northeast Iowa. Nineteen food service staff from South Winneshiek, Oelwein, West Central, MFL Mar-Mac and Central of Elkader school districts participated.  Read more.

School cooks back to school

Oelwein cooks went back to school early this year to sharpen their cooking skills by attending a 5th Season Workshop hosted by the Northeast Iowa Food & Fitness Initiative Farm to School program.   Guest chef and author, Monique Hooker from De Soto, Wisconsin showed food service workers how to prepare and store fresh local produce to be used throughout the school year by creating a vegetable dish called ratatouille.  (Read more)

Cross-age teachers trained

High school students participated in a training to prepare them for their role as cross-age teachers in the Farm to School program which will begin in January.  The high school age team teachers will facilitate Farm to School lessons with second grade students once a month using folios developed specifically for northeast Iowa.  The folios feature a different local food each month and provide information for parents and students. (Read more)

School Food Service Workers Complete ServSafe Training

School food service employees from five school districts participated in a day-long food safety in-service taught by Iowa State University Extension specialists Cindy Baumgartner and Jill Weber.  The training was part of the Farm to School project in northeast Iowa.  ServSafe® is a program of the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation.  Participants learned about prevention, regulatory requirements, and how to improve food quality. (Read more)