Make Room For Mushrooms 🤩

It’s officially back-to-school season, and Mushrooms In Schools are ready to save the day with free educational resources for the classroom and beyond. If your students are ready to be Saved by the porta-BELL-a mushroom, look no further than this newsletter that is packed with mushroom goodness that your students will love!

📚All About Mushrooms – Resources📚

Time out! Mushrooms make for a nutritious, back-to-school food that are an excellent option any time of day! Not only are they delicious – mushrooms are versatile and also have environmental benefits. Learn about all things mushrooms with these free educational resources and trainings available:

Classroom Education Resources

Check out our free Mushrooms in Schools resources full of learning activities to integrate into your lesson plans each month.

Mighty Mushroom & Friends Book

Mushrooms in Schools is here to introduce you to our superhero – Mighty Mushroom! Join Mighty through adventures as we learn more about mushrooms. Our first trip is to a farm to visit with friends, “Mighty Mushroom & Friends”.

Layers of Flavors Culinary Training Course

This training aims to increase participants’ familiarity with mushrooms, as well as provide ideas and education for how to incorporate more mushrooms into meals while keeping student acceptance, food cost, and waste in mind. Approved for 1 CEU by the School Nutrition Association!

Farm to School Resources

Learn more about how mushrooms are grown with our Farm to School toolkit, which provides ready-to-go classroom and cafeteria materials to promote local mushrooms and their environmental benefits.

How Mushrooms Grow

Before they make their way to your plate, mushrooms go through a growing process in a highly controlled environment unlike that of any other produce item. Go through each step with us!

Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) Resources

• Nutrition Education
• Program Support
• Activities 
• Toolkits

Kid-Friendly Mushroom Recipes

Need more mushroom inspiration? The Mushrooms in Schools website houses tons of kid-friendly recipes that will keep your students full and focused throughout the school day, while integrating more mushrooms on the plate. Win-win!

Here’s some of our favorites:

• Roasted Vegetable Wrap with Hummus
• Breakfast Vegetable Quesadilla
• Mushroom & Bell Pepper Pizza
• Ravioli Florentine

Kids Eat Mushrooms Too Recipe Contests

Prepare for back to school with fun, new ways to incorporate mushrooms to add mushrooms on the school lunch menu! Show off your cooking and creativity – enter your favorite mushroom recipe in the Kids Eat Mushrooms Too recipe contest! 

The K12 Recipe Contest Opens on July 30th (ends September 30, 2024). Submit your favorite recipe that utilizes fresh mushrooms deliciously and innovatively! 

Prizes for both contests include:

1. First Place Grand Prize: Registration for the National Child Nutrition Conference, National Head Start Conference, or School Nutrition Association’s Annual National Conference (winner’s choice) in 2025
2. Second Place Prize: Two Mushroom Grow Kits and Five Mushroom T-Shirts 
3. Third Place Prize: Three Mushroom T-Shirts and Three Mushroom Sunglasses

For more information, head over to our website here. Be sure to sign up for the School Nutrition newsletter or CACFP newsletter to stay updated with the latest!

#KidsEatMushrooms2 

If you plan to add more mushrooms to your menus, we would love to see what you and your students are cooking up!

Tag us on your Facebook and/or X (Twitter) post to win a Mushrooms in Schools T-shirt. 

Whenever you share your recipes, we will feature you in our “Mushrooms on the Menu” newsletter (want to subscribe? Click here). We want to celebrate all the hard work you and your team do.