Put Local on Your Tray Recipe and Resource Guide

UConn Extension’s Put Local on Your Tray Program has spent years learning from school food directors, farmers, and farm-to-school advocates. We’ve gathered a wealth of knowledge, including recipes, meal preparation ideas, seasoning tips, and best practices for showcasing CT-Grown items on cafeteria service lines. This guide highlights our findings, features recipes from Connecticut school food services along with key considerations and culturally relevant adaptations. It is designed to help school food directors integrate locally grown products while complying with USDA school meal pattern requirements. The resources we share can help you incorporate seasonal, cultural and logistical information into your farm to school food service program. To reach these goals we include:

• 35 school food service ready recipes organized by type of dish
• The removable recipe pages to share with your kitchen staff as they process and prepare local foods.
• English and Spanish translations of recipes that can be utilized by all staff
• Seasonality below the recipe title to highlight when the main ingredients are available from local farms
• Color indicators at the top right of each recipe that correspond different regions of the world to easily adapt recipes to different cultural regions