Decorah School District participates in Iowa Local Food Day

Friday is Iowa Local Food Day, and participating K-12 school districts, colleges and childcare centers will serve menus featuring local ingredients. To participate, schools must serve at least 2 local items for breakfast or lunch. Decorah School District will be participating in the Iowa Local Food Day again this year. However, as Food Director and Culinary Specialist Chad Elliott remarked, "Luckily, for this district, every day this time of year is local food day!"
     
Elliott adds, "This year's lunch meal will be an homage to Canada in celebrating Canada Day, which is on October 14th. Poutine is something I always thought would be fun to serve the students, and the ingredients and theme fit perfectly into a local food day. Poutine is a French-Canadian comfort food that consists of French fries, cheese curds, gravy, and assorted toppings. I will be borrowing U2 BBQ's smoker to smoke 200 pounds of local pork shoulder with hickory logs. A big thanks to U2 BBQ for loaning us the smoker."
     
Local Food Day 2019 Breakfast Menu
Breakfast pizza with scrambled eggs, ground pork, and cheddar cheese. Milk and freshly pressed apple cider.
     
Eggs: Cedar Ridge Farms–Elgin, IA
Cheddar Cheese: Homestead Dairy–Waukon, IA
Ground Pork: Quillin's–Waukon, IA
Apple Cider: Sunrise Orchards–Gays Mills, WI
     
Local Food Day 2019 Lunch Menu
Hand-cut, baked French fries topped with warm, freshly made cheese curds, hickory-smoked pulled pork, gravy, and a variety of vegetables for toppings. Freshly baked wheat dinner rolls (from the in-house bakery). Local field greens with homemade Caesar and French dressings. Local McIntosh caramel apples and milk.
     
Smoker: U2 BBQ
Pork & Gravy: Quillin's–Waukon, IA
Cheese Curds: Homestead Dairy–Waukon, IA
Potatoes: State Line Produce–Lime Springs, IA
Sour Cream: Country View Dairy–Hawkeye, IA
Apples: South Mound Orchard–Sherrill, IA
Field Greens: All Seasons Harvest–Cedar Falls, IA
Onions: Decorah High School Garden
Peppers: Decorah High School Garden 
All local ingredients are made possible through Iowa Food Hub field specialists Kayla Koether and Teresa Wiemerslage.
     
More information can be found on the Iowa Local Food Day website:  https://www.iowalocalfoodday.org/about-the-day.