Missouri Crunch Off - October 2024

The Missouri Crunch Off is a statewide event to celebrate Farm to School Month and the wonderful produce Missouri has to offer by crunching into any Missouri grown food anytime between Oct. 1-31. States throughout the USDA’s Mountain Plains Region (CO, MT, MO, KS, NE, ND, SD, WY) compete to see which state can get the most “crunches” into a local foods per capita. Use this toolkit to learn how to create a Crunch team and how to plan, promote and celebrate your Crunch event:
Missouri Crunch Off Toolkit (PDF)

Register! After your event remember to register your Crunch Off for it to be counted!
Register your Crunch Off event

The Mountain Plains Region had a collective 444,379 crunches in Oct. 2023! See how Missouri fared in the friendly competition last year:
2023 Crunch Off Statistics (PDF)

Improving children’s health, one meal at a time.

Farm to School (FTS) is any activity connecting schools to local food and farms. The main goals of FTS are to serve fresh, high-quality, locally grown food in school cafeterias; to provide agriculture, health and nutrition education; and to support local and regional farmers.

Missouri Farm to School works with schools, farmers, vendors and communities to get more fresh, flavorful foods to local cafeterias. By increasing access to these foods, we not only help the littlest Missourians develop healthy, life-long eating habits, but we also support family farmers and our economy. What are you waiting for? Try a little local today!

Why Farm to School is important:

• FTS has the ability to improve the quality of school meals, and it can also enable children to change dietary habits and select healthier foods.
• Commercial fruit and vegetable varieties grown out-of-state often trade flavor for durability. With FTS, local produce growers can focus on quality of taste over shipping capability when selecting varieties and timing harvests.
• People are seeking a connection to their food. In the age of processed food and food-borne illness outbreaks, more people value knowing their farmers and how the food they eat is raised.
• While directly helping the bottom line of local farmers, FTS also benefits local schools and the community as a whole. By purchasing locally, more money stays in the community, supporting local businesses and the local tax base.