Farm to School, Ep. 10

Learn about how the Farm to School program in Bismarck Public Schools has grown to provide delicious meals, use local resources and alleviate supply chain issues.

What is Thriving on the Prairie?

A podcast that inspires North Dakota movers, shakers and community difference-makers to engage in lifelong learning, featuring conversations with NDSU Extension professionals and guests exploring issues concerning families and communities.

Jan Stankiewicz 0:06
Welcome to Thriving on the Prairie - a podcast exploring issues concerning families and communities that inspires North Dakota movers, shakers and community difference makers to engage in lifelong learning. I'm Jan Stankiewicz, Community Health and Nutrition Specialist. And I'm with Gina and Michelle from Bismarck Public Schools. We'll be chatting a little bit about Farm to School - what they have going on in Bismarck. So I'll let you guys introduce yourselves, Michelle. Gina, let us know who you are and what your role is there.

Michelle Wagner 0:39
Well, I'm Michelle Wagner dietician and the Child Nutrition Program Director at Bismarck Public Schools.

Gina Giovannoni 0:47
And I'm Gina Giovannoni purchasing coordinator for Bismarck Public Schools.

Jan Stankiewicz 0:52
Awesome. So purchasing coordinator - what is that?

Gina Giovannoni 0:56
It's kind of a roundabout title that wears a lot of hats. I order anything from bread to laundry, and of course, what we're talking about today, the fruits and vegetables for the elementary program.

Jan Stankiewicz 1:11
And Michelle, so then the child nutrition program director is the oversight of the Lunch and Breakfast and Summer Meal Program for the district. Right?

Michelle Wagner 1:21
Yep, I'm kind of at that 30,000 foot view, and oversee all of our elementary and our secondary schools. Any of the federal paperwork that has to be done- the bidding process, hiring all of that kind of stuff, menu planning work with a team on that very much rely on the people that that help support me in this job to make the daily job happen.

Jan Stankiewicz 1:47
I can imagine because Bismarck is is it still the largest school district in the state?

Michelle Wagner 1:53
Yep, we are the largest in the state. We have 18 elementary buildings. We have six secondary buildings and one alternative school. And I think our enrollment is a ittle over 13,000 right now.

Jan Stankiewicz 2:09
Yeah, so think of 13,000 meals every day?

Michelle Wagner 2:14
Yep, we're usually around that 10,000 meal mark, is usually what we do about every day, since not every kid eats every single day. But yes, anywhere from that 10 to even some days, 12,000 meals a day.

Jan Stankiewicz 2:29
Yeah, that is a little bit crazy when you think about it. So on a daily basis, you have folks working in the schools, serving the food, preparing the food, that sort of thing. But beyond that, what does a day in the life of a school lunch professional like you, Gina, what does that look like for you on a daily basis?

Gina Giovannoni 2:55
Since our elementary schools are so small, we are only able to send them a day at a time, a lot of them only have an upright freezer, so every day is a big load for them. So they have their full meal that comes out. And then their fruits and veggies come out as well as maybe the second run or the next day for the full week. But I'm here at five in the morning, most days, the guys get out about 630, we load four trucks for the 18 different schools, they all have their routes, they all go in their separate directions and then come back for our fill in since they don't have the room for a lot of fluids. And we just kind of make up that gap. So if we have to send a smaller school a little bit of extra from what we projected what their actual count was. that will come on the 930 year run. So from nine to 930, we get our lunch counts. And that's where we make up that gap of initial projections to what they would actually be serving.

Jan Stankiewicz 3:54
I'm just sitting here trying to think of what that morning looks like. And this is every day and so you have to find out... you think about and guess what a school might need and according to them and you plan. It's not all just guessing I know that. And then you have to wait to find out what students actually are selecting for their lunches, right? And then feeling...oh my gosh...

Michelle Wagner 4:20
From nine to 930 it is the Wild West and here there is literally chicken flying.After this first four weeks cycle we have a better idea of what, especially with the second options, these are a little new for them as well. So we have to try to guess how many would have a second option opposed to the hot lunch and then

Jan Stankiewicz 4:44
And I guess that's good information for people to know too is that in our elementary schools in Bismarck there's lots of options for kids, right? So maybe if some of us haven't been in an elementary school lunchroom in a while tell us what we can expect in there. What goes on in there.

Gina Giovannoni 5:01
Well, the girls are and guys are there at 630 Most days getting breakfast they get everyone starts a hot breakfast. We have four schools participating in the breakfast in the classroom. So they're serving every kid a hot breakfast in the classroom. A lot of them, that's just a one cook school, three cook school. So they're busy. They get their breakfast done, and they turn right into lunch and at the elementary level, it's one hot option and then a secondary option plus a full salad bar. So every student's hot or cold gets to go through the salad bar and have a nice array of fruits and vegetables. The secondaries are a lot, a lot more extensive. I'll let Michelle talk about that one.

Michelle Wagner 5:48
Yeah, at our secondary level, we always have usually two hot options. And then we always have pizza and sub sandwiches available every single day. So again, it's a lot of guessing until we get through that first four weeks of a cycle menu of how much we should make of tater tot hot dish or chicken drumsticks, and then how much pizza and how much subs. So it's a lot of guessing those first four weeks, but then after that we get into a rhythm and a pattern. And then once in a while we get thrown a curveball like yesterday, a lot of schools ran out of tater tot hot dish, because the sixth graders just loved it and they ate it all up. And maybe that's because we're using local grown beef for it. And it tastes really good. I'm not sure but they they took a lot more than what we were expecting. So yeah, we were kind of flying by the seat of our pants the other day with that turned to make up some some more entree items for them to have. And again, at the secondary level, they have very large salad bars. And so every day they're full. And we try to put out as much different variety as we can for them at the secondary level. For Elementary, it's a little bit more scaled down just because it's sometimes too many options for them.

Jan Stankiewicz 7:04
Yeah, that makes sense, too. Because knowing your audience, you're not serving the same thing to all the students. And by secondary schools, you mean middle schools and high schools, right?

Gina Giovannoni 7:15
Correct.

Jan Stankiewicz 7:16
Soa through eight and then nine through 12?

Gina Giovannoni 7:19
Yes.

Jan Stankiewicz 7:19
Okay. And I think that's so interesting about the tater tot hot dish, because I have sixth graders in our house. And I think I heard about the tater tot hot dish yesterday.

Gina Giovannoni 7:29
So I was surprised my son came home and he said, Mom, did you know that tater tot hot dish was really good? I was like, Yeah, I do know. And I was surprised that he took it because it was the first time that it was offered this year for those sixth graders. So maybe it was just something new. They're excited about it. But yeah, he was surprised how good it was. And it is it's homemade from scratch so it makes a difference.

Jan Stankiewicz 7:54
Yeah, I know. I think those things do make a difference. And which is a really great segue for most of the topic that we're going to want to talk about today is Farm to School, with October is National Farm to School Month. And Bismarck Public Schools is one of the schools and districts in North Dakota that participates in Farm to School. And so when you maybe initially think of Farm to School, I know that sometimes I just immediately go to fruits and veggies only. But when you talk about tater tot hot dish, and a local beef, tell us a little bit about maybe how that started or how did you get local beef into the schools?

Gina Giovannoni 8:35
Well, I think it it really kind of took off last year when we started having some supply chain issues, and wondering if we were going to get all of our beef. Typically we take it off of our commodity trucks. And I know some of those trucks were done or canceled by, I'm not sure if it was at the USDA level or if it was at the state level.

Jan Stankiewicz 8:59
That is the whole thing. I do not know how you guys handle the different ordering and the different funding.

Gina Giovannoni 9:06
Oh, I don't know. It's just a lot. And you can spare us from all the headache to try to figure all that out. But I I get it.

Michelle Wagner 9:14
Yeah, yeah. And so I think, you know, when we kind of heard like, are we going to get beef or not? You know, we really had to try to figure out what we could do because it's not like you can just not have beef on the menu and fill in with chicken because we're we're running short on chicken products. We're running short on turkey products. There's only so much pork that we can do so we looked and went out and had Deb Eglund from the state was really good with working with iban and reaching out to all of them to try to get them involved with our products or with the needs that we needed. And then it really helped - USDA provided us with supply chain assistance funds. We were given a lump sum of money, which is great when they can just cut us a check. And we are able to control what we want to do with that. Now the caveat was that we had to use it on non processed local foods. And so you know, ground beef, or beef from a local rancher fits into their well, milk, honey. And then of course, fresh fruits and vegetables all fit into that category. And so we had this funding. And so it was just kind of like the stars aligned where it was like, Alright, let's go out to bid. And let's try start using some local beef. And so that was kind of the start of our local beef process. And so this past spring, we went out to bid for I think we put in for about 20,000 pounds of raw ground beef that we were looking for. And we had John from South 40 beef out in Mott, replied or responded to that bid process. And so he was awarded the bid. And, yeah, it's been going great. He comes, I think, almost every other week with a fresh delivery. And we're able to get that out to our secondary schools. And so we're using that raw ground beef, in about half of our beef products. One thing to know, with Bismarck Public Schools, we don't have a central kitchen. And so every school cooks their own food. And so it is a lot of work on our kitchen staff to cook that raw beef from that state for every single beef meal that we have. So that's why we kind of split it, we use some pre cooked beef that comes from the commodity side, and then this local beef for some of those other products. So that's kind of how we determined what we were going to do just to try to make it a little bit easier on the staff.

Gina Giovannoni 11:49
I know, and all of those things are so important to think about when wanting to switch to farm to school or more local products. It sounds like it's definitely doable, it sounds like you guys are doing an amazing job. But it's not just like a quick switch right away, and everything is local. So there's lots of things to consider with the preparation of it with the distribution, like getting a local rancher, you know, delivering it to Bismarck and Mott isn't just, you know, just outside of town, it's you know, it's a decent ways. And so you got to figure out all those things. I also think it was interesting, and I'm glad you mentioned the the federal programs that allowed for this sort of thing to kind of get a little more kick started. It just feels so good when those things are set up in a way to make it easy and reduce barriers for schools and districts to be able to access local foods. So when you say that it was easy for you guys to be able to use the funding on what you wanted, knowing that there's a few of those stipulations - it has to be local, it can't be minimally processed all that stuff. But it also makes you wonder why can't it all be like that?

That's a great question, Jan. Yes, I think we would all like to have just a little bit more control of what we're purchasing and what we're using our funding on. Because every school is different from Bismarck to Mandan, West Fargo to Fargo. You know, everybody's a little bit different.

Jan Stankiewicz 13:21
Yes. And even when you trickle down further more rural, smaller schools and districts, that makes a difference, too. So with moving more and more into Farm to School. When did you guys start some of your Farm to School Stuff? How long have you been doing it?

Michelle Wagner 13:40
So I think we were talking about this yesterday, Gina and I were trying to go back and I think it was 2018 was maybe the first year that we went out for bid for Farm to School. And so I think that was our first year that we really had some success with Stohl farms. And you know, we started really small, they just were providing some cucumbers and tomatoes, but it was at least a start. And so that's the starting point of where of when it finally took place. I started in my position in 2015. And I felt like it wasn't long after that, that we started getting the conversation going. And you know, a couple years later then I think we finally actually got Stohl Farms involved in it.

Jan Stankiewicz 14:26
And I think there's something to be said for that too. Is the relationship building part of it. You know, it's with the farmer, with the rancher, with you know, them feeling comfortable with the school district and working with bids and RFPs and you know, contracts and that sort of thing. And a school district feeling comfortable with a farmer/ rancher knowing that the products that they're providing are going to be safe and nutritious and you know, there's always going to be a little bit of an element of surprise with local food production and, you know, maybe it's a really poor year for a particular crop or something. But I think that relationship building is so important. And so, you know, looking back, we can say, oh, that, you know, we we would expect that relationship building would take time. But when you're in that three years, you think it's it never goes fast enough. Or builds that.

Michelle Wagner 15:18
Right. Yeah, it seemed like it took forever to get that going and gain the trust of the farmers. And I think that's one of the things that we're continuing to work on, in that we're still learning and growing through this process is that trust between them and us and what we can buy and what we, what we can make work and quantities.

Jan Stankiewicz 15:42
Yeah, for sure. So 2018, you had one farmer? So let's fast forward to this year, how many farmers are you working with for this school year? And what are some of the varieties of afoods that you're getting from local farmers?

Gina Giovannoni 15:59
What do we say, Michelle, we have about 12 - 15. I think we're at 12. And if you add, you know, beef, and Honey, we're at 14 producers.

Jan Stankiewicz 16:09
Oh, my God. Yeah. Yeah.

Michelle Wagner 16:12
And I just wanted to reiterate about that relationship building, it took a while, you know, we started with one and then we would just have little town halls or little little meetings, and then just maybe a couple more would come in or a couple more farmers would come in and I think that alleviating some of their fear of, well, what if I don't have a crop? What if I am not able to commit? What if something happens that will take what you have? We can send it to one school or we can send it to 10 schools? We have a nice we have an outlet for a large variety of items. Like you said, what items are we taking tomatoes, cucumbers, those fresh that you just can't buy store bought? They're not the same?

Jan Stankiewicz 16:55
Yeah, that is amazing.

Michelle Wagner 16:58
I think this is the first we've taken green beans. The coop is able was able to process some green beans for us. So I think Gina Did you see we had close to 100 pounds? Yes, green beans, and then some corn too. So we were able to take some fresh corn, and we'll probably try to get that out to some of the schools to put out on the salad bar.

Jan Stankiewicz 17:20
That's great. Yeah, so your partnership with the the Bis Man, Community Food Co Op that's a little bit new, and again, to the relationship building and stuff. But tell us a little bit about what's going on with the coop.

Michelle Wagner 17:34
I think that was kind of a whole new adventure. It started this year. They were awarded a grant to try help build those relationships. I think it's supposed to be more with rural groceries but they can use some of this to help us and I think it's supposed to help really grow their actual coop. But part of that is growing their businesses - selling to Bismarck Public Schools. Last year Gina was a saint and worked with all the farmers and just said, Sure, I'll take it. I'll take this. I'll take that. Okay, when do you want to meet? Okay, sure. I can be there. Oh, okay, you're not gonna be there. Okay, I'll meet you at this time. You know, we get it farmers have have things come up. And they say they can make it and something comes up and they can't and so she was really good about meeting those farmers down at Moses. That's where we took in most of that produce. But we just realized that the more that farmers or producers that we took on it, it just wasn't feasible to to have Gina try to manage that. And so the coop has been a blessing in that sense. They're taking all that produce from those farmers now. And they're processing some of those items for us. packaging them up, weighing them out and then bringing them to us and so we're just working with the coop now for one delivery, versus 12 different producers trying to drop off stuff.

Jan Stankiewicz 19:06
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. That's really handy. And you know, a really good again a really good partnership where it maybe connects a farmer or rancher to the coop, who maybe they weren't already connected and connecting the school district to the coop and yeah, that just seems like a really nice nice tie in for for all parties.

Gina Giovannoni 19:27
She just came in with a load of tomatoes.

Jan Stankiewicz 19:32
What timing! Awesome. It's a day in the life right? Yeah, so this is all really great. You guys have made amazing strides. But I'm guessing it hasn't been all rainbows and roses this whole time. So tell us what would be some of the challenges if a school or district is looking to start Farm to School or if a farmer or rancher is looking to connect with a school? What are some challenges that they can maybe expect? And then if you would, you know, shed some light on maybe how you overcome some of those challenges, or maybe you're still addressing them.

Gina Giovannoni 20:14
I think staffing, mostly, a lot of these smaller districts are a one man show or they're just a one person question serving multiple, hundreds of students, so they don't necessarily have the time for production, and cutting and slicing and on. And then reliability, you know, knowing that if I do, if I miss my order of this, am I gonna get it from a farmer? So those are probably some of the bigger challenges those smaller districts have here. You know, even in Bismarck, it's a one man show. So we have a team behind us, and we have delivery drivers to be able to take all of the produce to the schools. But as far as processing, it's at Moses, with Michelle and I, and that's 300 pounds of cucumbers. So I could see a smaller district, trying to go it alone might be a little more difficult. But if you can just ease into it, 1 item, and then 1 item, maybe two items.

Jan Stankiewicz 21:17
I think that is something , it's good for all of us to to kind of remember is that cooking from scratch, while it's better, and we all know that it tastes good. And it's all the TLC that gets put into it, but the time it takes for that, and the quantity and the volume that you're dealing with is, yeah, it just the time it piles up, that's for sure.

Michelle Wagner 21:43
Yeah, it really multiplies too and I think if you think about the equipment too that you need, you know, I think that's maybe a challenge even for us, you know, we don't have the equipment really to like process squash, you know, or to cook squash in these quantities that we're going to need, we have a state that produces a lot of squash, it would be great to be able to do that. And again, I think that's where the coop is going to kind of fill that gap where they are putting in for specific equipment, so that they can process some of those things for us and hopefully hire some staff to do that. Because we just wouldn't be able to do that at even at our district. So I would assume at some of those smaller schools/ districts, you know, they're not going to have the right equipment to be able to do that. And like Gina said, the time it's, it's demanding. It's a lot of work.

Jan Stankiewicz 22:37
Yeah. So when you are looking into working with a co op and then processing things, so when what are some of the products that you'll be getting from the coop? Like what is it going to be like tomato sauce and squash puree? Or what are you looking to get from the coop when they're processing for you?

Michelle Wagner 23:00
I think we're hoping like green beans, and corn are kind of our two to start with. We would love to get like cubed squash so that we can roast our own squash, you know, but we need it. cut and cleaned and cubed for us to be able to offer that on the menu. Different things like that, you know, like beets, roasted beets, I think would be a nice addition at that secondary level to try. I think the the possibilities may be endless, and we don't really even know yet what we can do. We're kind of starting small, you know, starting small away with Jared and just taking cucumbers and cherry tomatoes. And now we're like, Okay, now we'll take some green beans that have been processed and some corn that has been processed. And we'll see how that goes. And hopefully we can continue to grow that. And then yeah, maybe get into those squashes different things like that, that we could run during the fall for some special menu items.

Jan Stankiewicz 24:00
Mm hmm. So you mentioned a little bit about the tater tot hot dish that sixth graders were going crazy for it because maybe because of the local beef. Do you have you heard any other feedback from the student side or maybe the teacher side about any changes or acceptance of the local products in on their plates?

Michelle Wagner 24:23
I know when we did a taste testing between we did a spaghetti sauce. And we did it with a local beef and our commodity beef. And that students definitely liked the taste of that local beef better. My cooks will tell you hands down it's smells so much better when they're cooking it. They find that they have a higher yield to So it's it's a better you know, we're getting more out of our product, which is nice on the budget side of it. And so I think I think overall it's just it's just been a good. It's just been well received.

Jan Stankiewicz 25:03
And when, let's say in the lunchroom when a local product is served, like are students made aware that it's local? Or is there any kind of promotion or advertising of that local farm in the school or anything?

Michelle Wagner 25:17
We sure try. I've definitely made signs I, you know, thank Forger Farms, he was providing us pea shoots almost through all winter and into the fall. And so we definitely tried to sign it. We have our new farmer to school logo, which just came out. We have those available at all the schools and I just let them know, I emailed them. Hey, today is fresh tomatoes and fresh cucumbers sign it today isfresh pea shoots sign it. So yeah, we definitely a lot of communication.

Jan Stankiewicz 25:52
Yeah, that internal communication is huge, too. Yeah. Yeah. Communication I guess all around with, you know, parents and administrators, but also internally for your folks to know. Yep, these are local tomatoes. These are local cucumbers, put the signs out all that stuff. Yeah. Again, the coordination and logistics of all, this is just mind blowing. And, Michelle, you mentioned a little bit of information about budget. So tell us, do you have an endless budget for local food?

Michelle Wagner 26:26
Wouldn't that be nice?

Jan Stankiewicz 26:29
How is all of this paid for? And where, what is the funding like for local food stuff?

Gina Giovannoni 26:35
Well, I mean, our budget is we're under a federally funded program. And so we have to generate our own revenue, to pay for our bills, and to do these types of things. So we don't get any money from the general fund, you know, like teachers, custodians, principals, aides, all of those are paid out of the general fund, which comes from local tax dollars. And so child nutrition is kind of like a business within the school. And so we have our own separate funding that can only be used for Child Nutrition, it can't be used to pay a teacher salary or aides or custodians, it has to be related to child nutrition. And so because we are basically a business, I like to say we're a business with a heart, because we're feeding kids

Jan Stankiewicz 27:25
I like that

Gina Giovannoni 27:25
And so we keep the kids at the center of the plate, and making sure that we're doing the best things for them, we also do have to make sure that we are running on our own, or else then we do have to start taking money from the general fund, which means less money for students for education for teachers, aides, things like that. And so I guess, with that being said, you know, we, we rely on our participation at our meals at lunch, breakfast and lunch, because for each meal that we serve, we get reimbursed from the federal government for that. And then it's also what you pay every day for your students lunch, you know, if you're an elementary student, you're paying $2.35, if you're a secondary student, middle and high schools, they pay $2.85. And so even those full pay kids, we do get a little portion from the government to cover that expense of that meal. But yeah, basically, we have to generate our own revenue, to make sure that we're covering our expenses. And then like I said, with this year, it's been great with these supply chain assistance funds, we've been able to use that money specifically to really grow this program, and pay that extra money for those fruits and vegetables. I think it is something that's going to be sustainable moving forward. Even if we don't get these supply chain assistance funds in the future. I think USDA is starting to realize how important it is that they maybe give us this money if they want local products, and if they want to help build our communities and grow this relationship. But no, unfortunately, it's not an endless supply of money for this, but you know, you just look at it overall and figure out where you want to allocate money to and hope that you have enough.

Jan Stankiewicz 29:19
Yeah, yeah, I know. I think that bigger picture of realizing that when supply chains when timelines when availability of products gets backed up, that relying on local food systems is what helps and realizing that it can be done. I think, you know, a couple of years ago, you know, you hear about all the stories about people being able to do farm to school and these big robust programs that they have, but it seems like it always takes a long time and when things can get set up in a way to make it easier, it just makes so much more sense. It's easier. And then going back to what you said, Michelle, the sustainability of it matters too, because it's not something that, you know, I don't think any school district wants to do it for just one year, and then wipe their hands of it, you know, they want to build and sustain and keep taking steps forward.

Michelle Wagner 30:23
Right. And I think, you know, anytime that we can provide that better quality of a product, whether it's beef, it's fruits of vegetables, it's honey, you know, any of that local stuff that is just better, more kids participate in our program, then, which then means, you know, more federal reimbursement from the government that helps us continue to build these programs. So, you know, you almost need to like, continue this keep, keep putting these products out there and a quality product, a good quality product for these kids so that we continue to hopefully, keep our participation up.

Jan Stankiewicz 30:58
Yeah, that's something for people who aren't in the school lunch Child Nutrition world, is to know that school lunch doesn't always get the best reputation or have the best reputation. But when kids are changing their mind about foods that they select, or trying something for the first time, or asking questions about how this grows on the farm, you know, those sorts of things that gets kids thinking, connects them with the food connects where it comes from, it all makes a difference. And then, you know, those little nuggets, those little stories get passed along to the parents, which always helps in the school lunch world.

Michelle Wagner 31:42
Yeah, I think you're right. You know, I don't think parents understand the hoops that we kind of have to jump through to produce a meal every day or the guidelines that we have to follow. You know, we have to look at how many grains we're offering per day and per week We have how many meats and meat alternates that we're offering every day, and then a total for the week. Our veggies we have different subcategories. So we have to offer so many red/orange vegetables, dark green vegetables, legumes. I get asked all the time, why do we have beans every week? Well, because the government says we have to, we have to have legumes, baked beans, black beans, different things like that. Edamame . So they're encouraging us to. Well, they're saying we have to do that, basically, we have to offer these things. And then you get into the calorie ranges, you know, for K through five, there's certain calorie ranges that we have to stay in between. Six through eight have calorie ranges. Nine through 12 have calorie ranges. You know, and I think that parents don't understand that. They're saturated fat limits that we have to stay under for all of our products. And so really, our meals are one of the are the healthiest meals out there right now. Like for school lunch than they've ever been. And it's because of those changes that happened back in 2010, with the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act. And yes, it was very painful to go through that. And I think we're still feeling some of those pains. But I definitely think that it was a step in the right direction that we probably needed to take. It might have went a little bit too far at once. But we're getting there. You know, we're getting there.

Jan Stankiewicz 33:32
Yeah, we all feel it a little bit when we have to change, or I do or our systems.

Michelle Wagner 33:37
Yeah.

Jan Stankiewicz 33:38
Yeah. Um, well, just thinking about wrapping up, but what else are you wanting folks to know about Farm to School and Bismarck Public Schools? Did we not cover anything, something that you're really wanting to get out there?

Michelle Wagner 33:55
I just yeah, thank you to the producers out there. And just really, like I said, we're just still growing. And we're still learning. And we're still hitting the bumps in the road. And we're working out the kinks and have a good team behind us. And I'm just very appreciative of that.

Jan Stankiewicz 34:12
Yeah, and I think I guess that's something that I would also like to extend is just like my thanks to you guys for, like forging ahead. And, you know, it sounds like it's a lot of hard work. But it also sounds like there's lots of rewards from it, and lots of good things to come from it. So, it sounds like you're doing really great things, and I appreciate you being on the podcast with me today. I hope folks enjoy it out there. And again, thanks for being here.

Michelle Wagner 34:43
Thank you, Jan.

Jan Stankiewicz 34:45
Thanks for listening to Thriving on the Prairie. To subscribe to the podcast and access a full transcript and resource links from this episode. Visit www.ag.ndsu.edu/thriving on the prairie. You can find more resources for families and communities on NDSU Extension's website. This has been a production of NDSU Extension. Extending Knowledge. Changing Lives.

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