From Field to Fork

I recently wrote about a “Produce Safety in Schools” workshop that USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service hosted in late October. Most of the conversation was about school lunch and the fresh fruit and vegetable snack program. Three school foodservice professionals from Mississippi, Maryland, and Michigan discussed their varied experiences and constraints with fresh produce.

In the Michigan district, the snack program is available in one school, and those kids get fruit every morning and a vegetable every afternoon. In the Mississippi district, the kids in three schools get one snack three days a week. And in the larger Maryland district, four schools with 2,300 students get a snack two days a week (fresh-cut produce once a week and whole fruit once a week delivered to teachers mid-morning so they can use it any time).

The school foodservice pros noted that rising produce prices have caused them to cut back on the snack program. In Mississippi they cut back to three days a week because they received less money, the produce prices doubled, labor costs rose, and they were billed fuel surcharges when oil was high.

Another constraint they face is having sufficient refrigeration. In the Maryland district, as they renovate schools they’re putting in larger, walk-in refrigeration units. They get daily deliveries, which helps. The Mississippi districts schools get one delivery a week; in the Michigan district schools get two to three deliveries a week. Currently the snack program limits funds used for equipment to 10% — these school foodservice pros would like to see that raised.

All three women use ServSafe to train workers. The larger Maryland district does a six-hour training before school starts in the fall, and the smaller Mississippi district cooperates with other smaller districts to handle training.

So what? Why should we care about any of this?

I noted in the first report on this workshop that kids eat the produce, ask for it from their parents, and expect to see it as they move through school. We’re building consumers for life. The federal funds don’t cover every school in each state. And we’ve heard from these pros that they can’t do as much as they used to do with the funds available.

We all live in school districts and I’m guessing most of us pay taxes to keep those districts running. Can you get involved in your district or even one school? You’re in the produce business – can you help with equipment or product? Get to know the school foodservice officials for your district. Ask about the lunch and snack programs. A small investment from you may make a big difference to the district, the school, and the kids. Help build produce consumers for life.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 10:00 am and is filed under Consumption and Nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.