Join the Wisconsin Chili Lunch
COVID-19 UPDATE
To celebrate farm to school and support Wisconsin’s farmers, we will continue to host the 2021 Wisconsin Chili Lunch on Thursday, February 25, 2021. We commit to working with participants to support local purchasing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Join K-12 schools, early care and education programs, hospitals, and colleges in celebrating local foods by cooking and serving a chili recipe made with local ingredients on National Chili Day—Thursday, February 25, 2021!
Participation is simple: Prepare and serve your Wisconsin Chili Lunch using as many locally grown ingredients as possible, and customize it to meet your needs! Add local meats, cheese, or yogurt! Serve it in a bowl, on a baked potato, or with a cinnamon roll! Use a recipe listed below, or cook up your own favorite chili recipe. The key is to source as many Wisconsin-grown products as you can.
Watch, learn, share and celebrate the Wisconsin Chili Lunch!
The Wisconsin Chili Lunch is a great way to highlight your farm to cafeteria efforts, practice sourcing local foods, support Wisconsin farmers and join forces with cafeterias and kitchens across the state to be “vocal for local.”
“This was a great success for us! We had a lot of staff who don’t normally eat school lunch try it and it gave us an opportunity to show them how great our lunches are. We got nothing but great feedback from staff and students. It was an even bigger hit than I anticipated.“
Read the article “Farm2School to hit on healthy, local eating with chili at 33 La Crosse area schools” from the La Crosse Tribune about the successful 2017 Coulee Region Farm2School Chili Lunch, which launched the statewide event:
Farm2School to hit on healthy, local eating with chili at 33 La Crosse area schools
Visit the Wisconsin Chili Lunch Facebook page for photos and stories from previous years.
Resources
- K-12 recipe with crediting
100 servings - ECE recipe with crediting
8 servings (new!)
25 servings - Hospitals, colleges and other sites
25 servings
100 servings - DPI School Nutrition Team Recipe Crediting Tool
- WI Chili Lunch save the date flyer
- Social media toolkit
- Wisconsin Chili Lunch Guide
- LIVE Product List
- Use the USDA Food Buying Guide to substitute ingredients for the Chili Lunch recipe or to credit your own recipe toward the meal pattern.
Contact Brianna Fiene (bfiene2@wisc.edu, 608-265-4201) with questions or for guidance.
Partners: La Crosse County Health Department; UW-Madison Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems; Coulee Region Farm2School; Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction School Nutrition Programs and Community Nutrition; Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection.
This project has been funded at least in part with Federal funds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The contents of this publication do not necessarily reflect the view or policies of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or Organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.