Are you a farmer that would like to attend regional and statewide food shows for school districts?

The Kentucky Farm to School Network has participated in several vendor shows for school food service, and either sampled Kentucky farm products or invited farmers to exhibit/sample their own food products. Farmer participants should be interested in or already selling to school food service, with adequate production and delivery capability. Exhibiting could be just having an example of your product and packaging to display, could be frozen product. Samples would be prepared and ready to eat, served in small bites. For corn, that could be a couple of quarts of corn kernels cut off the cob that we could offer in tiny sample/condiment cups for the attendees to eat on the spot. For beef/pork, that could be ground beef cooked up and served in a bite-size chip or burgers cut into one bite sizes or sausage patties cut into bite-size pieces. We have sampled salad, raw veggies with dip, and fresh berries. We can use chafing dishes and/or ice trays to keep food at temperature, as needed, just as a caterer would use for serving food at an event. The network has supplies for this and can provide utensils and serving cups.

Farmer exhibitors are encouraged to have copies of some kind of print materials about your farm, your products, your delivery capacity, and your contact information. Price lists would be good to have available for those who show interest.

The other vendors at these events are kitchen equipment and supply dealers, as well as prepared and packaged foods from big corporations with items like frozen pizzas, chicken nuggets, frozen breakfast sandwiches, and cups of applesauce. In the midst of all this processed food, we really want to highlight the freshness, flavor, and quality of good homegrown Kentucky food products to school food professionals. 

You don't have to be present to participate. The Network can distribute information about your product for you. If you do choose to come and stay, you'll get face-to-face time with potential buyers.