7th graders line up for a taste of fresh asparagus prepared by Chef Tory

The CHOW (Cooking Healthy Options in Wisconsin) story:

Chefs Tory Miller and Eva Ringstrom from L'Etoile Restaurant in Madison, WI, wanted to share their passion for preparing fresh, local foods with school children.

In the spring of 2006, they approached WI Homegrown Lunch with their idea and a wonderful collaboration was born!

Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch was excited to expand our food-education programming into the middle school level and providing students hands-on experience with professional chefs seemed a perfect fit. Madison's Sherman Middle School was just kicking off it's USDA Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program at this time which made it a natural starting place to trial what has fondly become known as CHOW (Cooking Healthy Options in Wisconsin).

Tory and Eva taught their first class using fresh, local asparagus to 6th, 7th, and 8th graders in May 2006. Encouraged by the enthusiastic response from teachers and students alike, WHL worked with Tory and Eva to put together a four week series of classes that all of Sherman's 7th graders participated in during the fall of 2006. Another four-week series of classes is being developed and presented in the spring of 2007. Lesson plans for these classes can be found on our educator resource page.

Read about CHOW in two articles from the Madison papers:
- October 2006: Isthmus article by Erika Janik: "Readin', writin', fricasseein' -- Top Madison chefs teach the children well"
- December 2006: Capital Times Article by Susan Troller: "A new taste adventure -- Students learn nutritious can mean delicious"

Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch
A joint project of the REAP Food Group and
the University of Wisconsin's Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems

Contact Doug Wubben, project coordinator, at dwubben@wisc.edu

http://www.reapfoodgroup.org/farmtoschool
Web site designed and maintained by Lori Compas
at the UW Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems
Updated February 3, 2008