The Great Lakes Apple Crunch helps celebrate National Farm to School month (October) by collectively purchasing and crunching into locally grown apples at noon on a day in mid-October every year.  The Great Lakes Apple Crunch not only celebrates National Farm to School Month but also supports local farmers and encourages healthy eating.

Six states across the Midwest collaborate on this event, including Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, and Ohio. K-12 schools, early childcare, and education sites, hospitals, colleges and universities, farms, state and local agencies, non-profit organizations, local businesses, and even households are encouraged to participate. Last year, nearly 808,000 students, children, teachers, and others crunched, including UW-Madison Extension staff from Area 15 (Fond du Lac, Sheboygan, Ozaukee, and Washington.) To learn more about how your workplace can celebrate, visit: https://cias.wisc.edu/our-events/applecrunch/

The Fond du Lac/Sheboygan FoodWIse program has hosted celebrations for the past 4-5 years. This has included an office crunch (all staff tries fresh, locally grown apples at the same time), apple recipe tastings, apple trivia, and other fun activities. Local apple farmers were interviewed and highlighted on the local Facebook page. And, other social media efforts on the local Facebook page celebrated the event throughout the month.