Selling to Local Food Markets: Schools and ECEs
October 21, 2026 12:00PM - 1:30PM
Contact: Jazmin Bolan-Williamson
Join Michigan’s Emerging Farmers for this next webinar session in the series, Selling to Local Food Markets: A Webinar Series for Farmers. This session will provide farmers with practical strategies for selling to schools and child care sites.
Schools and early care education centers are key market opportunities for farmers. In this session, May Tsupros and Julie Lehman (MSU CRFS) and Wendy Crowley (Michigan Department of Education) will share strategies for identifying opportunities, food safety requirements, and meeting procurement needs of educational institutions.
Meet this week’s speakers
-
Wendy Crowley is the Farm to Program Consultant at Michigan Department of Education (MDE). Her background includes hotel and restaurant operations and Small Business Development Centers support. At MDE, she has supported claims and systems development for all of Michigan’s child nutrition programs.
She is the lead contact for grantees for help with applications, invoice submission, reimbursement payments, and general information on 10 Cents a Meal operations.
-
Julie Lehman is the Farm to Youth Network Coordinator for the Center for Regional Food Systems (CRFS). In her role, she provides network coordination activities and communications support for the Michigan Farm to School, Farm to Early Care Education, and Farm to Institution Networks. She also serves as Michigan's lead for the Lake Michigan School Food Systems Innovation Hub regranting program.
Julie comes to CRFS with 20 years of experience working with youth, gardens, community development, and education. She holds dual degrees in communications and education from Michigan State University. Julie's interest in food systems stems from her experiences growing up on her family's apple orchard in mid-Michigan, from teaching at a PreK through 5th-grade Title I school garden in northern California, and from over a decade supporting Greater Lansing Food Bank's Garden Project. In her spare time, she loves to be outside and aspires to have a garden as beautiful as her grandmother’s.
-
May Tsupros, Director of Farm to Institution Programs and Assistant Director of Programs coordinates the Michigan Farm to Institution Network, oversees the local food purchasing campaign, Cultivate Michigan, and supports the local food procurement incentive program: 10 Cents a Meal.
As an educator, grassroots community connector, and sustainable food systems designer their work centers on racial and economic equity. Previous to their work at CRFS, they served a seven-year tenure as an award winning high-school science teacher, Teach For America Alum, and Dean in Chicago’s North Lawndale community. During this time, they co-founded and led Gardeneers, a thriving Chicago Public School garden non-profit. After their work with the Chicago Public School District, they moved to Ishpeming, Michigan, in the beautiful Upper Peninsula, to support the re-imagining of this rural mining community into a regenerative agriculture epicenter as Executive Director of Partridge Creek Farm; a non-profit specializing in farm-to-school, placed based education – growing community through local food. They also founded SunTree Collaboration, weaving threads at the intersection of plant medicine, permaculture, spirituality, and intergenerational education to heal the human-nature connection.
May is the current Board Chair of the National Farm to School Network, and an Executive Board member of Gardeneers and Partridge Creek Farm. May earned an undergraduate degree in Conservation Ecology and Biology from Indiana University and a Masters in Teaching from National-Louis University in Chicago. In their free time, May is a dog parent to Luigi and Greta, bee steward, permaculture teacher, mountain biker, certified community yoga teacher, gardener, and racial and food equity advocate.
For questions about this webinar series, please contact Jazmin Bolan-Williamson, Farm and Food Business Coordinator at MSU CRFS at bolanwil@msu.edu.
About Michigan’s Emerging Farmers
Our statewide program aims to create pathways to growth and economic opportunity for all of Michigan’s agricultural producers, including small- to mid-sized farmers. This project is funded by USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, in a cooperative agreement with members of the Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems, Michigan State University Extension, and Michigan Food and Farming Systems (MIFFS).
This work is supported by the American Rescue Plan Technical Assistance Initiative program, project award no. 2023-70417-39233, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and should not be construed to represent any official USDA or U.S. Government determination or policy.
This event is also brought to you by the Great Lakes Partnership for Food and Farm Business Development.
Print
Email