Joliet Junior College
IN-1: Innovation 1

Since 2013, the Culinary Arts Program at JJC has held an annual Farm to Fork Scholarship dinner in a grove populated with large oak trees on the beautiful college grounds. The meal is designed to promote local farmers, growers, and producers as well as to introduce our culinary students to the importance of local products, getting ingredients at the peak of freshness, and practicing sustainable food production.

In conjunction with the dinner, we have a farmer’s market where the local growers, farmers and producers are able to sell their items directly to the guests. This enables the guests and the students to interact and support these local businesses while stressing the importance of local farming and shopping.

For the past two years, the dinner has sold out at 200 guests. The next one will be held in September 2015. Cumulatively over the two years a total of 400 guests and approximately 250 students participated.

All of the students who participated in the program during the past two years (approximately 250) met the farmers, learned about their products and methods, toured local farms, and used local products (pork, trout, produce, poultry, beef, wine, beer, honey, etc.) to produce the meal. Each of the guests who attended the events (400) were able to meet the farmers at the farmer’s market set up along the perimeter of the dining area. We provided the guests with donated farmer’s market bags so they could shop at the market and purchase locally grown and produced items directly from the source. Approximately $10,000 in scholarship and professional development funds were raised from the events as well. Because the majority of ingredients were donated by the growers and producers, the program saved approximately $8000 in expenses which were then turned into scholarships. We also introduced some of our vendors to the JJC Foodservice Department who subsequently purchased some produce for events.