May Harvest of the Month is the organic Peewee Avocado

The Harvest of the Month for May is the organic Peewee Stehly Farms Organics in Valley Center, CA Find this super veggie on school salad bars every Wednesday during the month of April.

To help educate students on where the Harvest of the Month produce item comes from, San Diego Unified has created monthly Harvest of the Month videos that act as virtual field trips to the farm. These videos are an opportunity to connect students to their food and local farmers. We encourage principals to have their teachers share the videos in the classroom so students can experience the full circle of their food. We encourage parents and students to watch as well!

May Harvest of the Month Virtual Field Trip video links:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLxhxhZJyn0&feature=youtu.be

SandiTube: http://tube.sandi.net/video/videos/4245/peewee-avocados-harvest-of-the-month

 

San Diego Unified showcases Farm to School Program for national audience

As part of a national food services conference, more than 60 school district representatives, members of the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and members of National Food Service Management Institute took a trip to Crawford High School to observe San Diego Unified’s Farm to School program in action.

Attendees were welcomed by Gary Petill, the director of San Diego Unified’s Food Services department.

“We all know about the challenges of the stigma associated with school food over the years,” said Petill. The meals served at schools across the district do not look like the typical school lunches of the past. They are colorful, with vibrant hues revealing the focus on serving fresh fruits and vegetables.”

As part of their trip, attendees had the opportunity to tour Crawford High’s garden and kitchen facilities.

Crawford High has implemented a Garden to Café program, allowing fresh produce to be grown and harvested on site and served in the cafeteria. Members of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) run internships at Crawford High for students to work in the garden, gaining job experience and learning about nutrition.

Pictured: Jomar, Susan, Shafie, Pawlay and Irene

This afterschool garden club allows for students like Susan, Irene, Pawlay, Jomar and Shafie to participate in a social activity while growing various crops such as lettuce, spinach, radishes or kale.

“It’s interesting because when I came here, it had been three months that I’d been in the United States,” said Jomar, a junior. “I wanted to compare gardening here to in the Philippines.”

Crawford High has a prep kitchen that services the surrounding school campuses in addition to its main campus. While touring the kitchen, attendees were able to meet some of the San Diego farmers who sell organic crops to San Diego Unified.

Some of the more surprising foods served to students include kabocha squash, cremini mushrooms, jicama and kumquats. George Edwards, an attendee from New York City’s Department of Education, explained that even though these foods may be unusual to serve to elementary school students, children can easily learn to like them.

“Yes, kids are picky.” said Edwards. “Adults are picky. Sometimes it’s easier to convince a child to try something new as opposed to an adult. Usually it takes one child, and the rest seem to follow.”

To conclude their trip to Crawford High, the attendees were served a California Thursdays lunch. This meal, presented by the Center for Ecoliteracy in collaboration with San Diego Unified, features California-grown food and includes a Mary’s Chicken drumstick.

The Major Cities Training Symposium by NFSMI was an opportunity for individuals from food services departments in school districts across the nation to exchange ideas and information. Crawford High and San Diego Unified served as an example of a successful and innovative Farm to School program.

Nation’s School Districts Take A Seat At San Diego Unified’s Table

IN THE NEWS: Food service officials from 30 school districts from across the country on Thursday stopped by Crawford High School for lunch. The officials were there to learn about San Diego Unified School District's farm-to-school program. The Department of Agriculture brought the school food bosses to San Diego for a symposium hosted by the National Food Service Management Institute. Read and watch more from KPBS.

Harvest of the Month is the Organic Minneola Tangelo

Even though we are halfway through the month, there is still plenty of time to try February's Harvest of the Month - the organic Minneola Tangelo from Sunrise Farms in Vista, Calif. Find this super fruit on your school salad bar every Wednesday during the month of February.

View the video

To help educate students on where the Harvest of the Month produce item comes from, the Farm to School program has have created monthly Harvest of the Month videos that act as virtual field trips to the farm. These videos are an opportunity to connect students to their food and local farmers. We encourage principals to have their teachers share the videos in the classroom so students can experience the full circle of their food.

Please share these Virtual Field Trip Video links with teachers, staff and students:
http://tube.sandi.net/video/videos/4014/harvest-of-the-month-minneolas

'Salute to Education' looks at Farm to School in the Classroom program at Audubon Elementary

IN THE NEWS: Kids who eat better, usually perform better in school, but students don't always make healthy food choices when they have the option. The Farm to School in the Classroom program is helping change that by linking nutrition education in the classroom to the lunch offerings in the cafeteria. Cox 4 visits Audubon Elementary School in Skyline to find out how. Watch video from Cox 4 San Diego»

Peewee Avocados from Escondido's Stehly Farms is 'Harvest of the Month'

Organic Peewee Avocados are on San Diego Unified cafeteria salad bars as the May Harvest of the Month item on our salad bars. Stehly Farms Organics, located in Valley Center is supplying the delicious fruit. Watch video»

What's a Nagami Kumquat? It's the April "Harvest of the Month"

Grown in Rainbow, in northern San Diego County, Nagami Kumquats are a delicious fruit is a Wednesday special on salad bars throughout the San Diego Unified School District. Watch video»

Minneola Tangelos go fresh from North County orchards to SD Unified cafeterias

The journey of the February "Harvest of the Month" documented in video. They're on the salad bar every Wednesday in February. Watch»

Going meatless on Mondays

IN THE NEWS: Meatless Monday has also reached the plates of San Diegan youngsters. In September, San Diego Unified School District adopted Meatless Monday in its elementary schools. Gary Petill, director of the district’s food services, said it was an opportunity to educate children about a plant-based diet. Read more from UT San Diego»

Safe handling training means safer home-grown greens

It's one thing to grow fruits and vegetables on campus, but knowing that San Diego Unified School District's cafeterias abide by strict heath standards means special training to ensure that school grown food makes it to campus tables, part of the Garden to Café program.

“This program really helps make the seed to table connection for students, they help grow and care for their school garden and then can feel proud of the bounty they are sharing with their fellow classmates” says Ashley Cassat, Farm to School Specialist in charge of the District’s Garden to Café program.

Recent training brought staff members from 35 schools together with school volunteers and community members to learn about safe food handling from farm to school. Attendees learned about the Garden to Café Protocol, food safety requirements to grow produce for school salad bars and received resources to help them connect their gardens to classroom learning. Thanks to funding from the County of San Diego, Community Transformation Grant participants received the Growing Classroom, Garden Based Science Curriculum, which is aligned to the Common Core Standards.

The Garden to Café program allows fresh garden-grown food from school gardens to be served as part of the school meal program and provides students an opportunity to learn where their food is grown.


“Our goal is to have many more schools participate in the program.” For more information about the Garden to Café program, please visit the district website at http://www.sandi.net/food or contact Ashley Cassat, Farm to School Specialist at acassat@sandi.net .

New Food and Nutrition Services truck wraps carry Farm to School message

Trucks bringing America's freshest, healthiest and best-tasting lunches to San Diego Unified elementary campuses are now wrapped with a brightly colored message about the San Diego Unified Farm to School program.

The message is simple and clear: we serve fresh locally grown fruits and vegetable to our students.

The truck-wraps were funded through the Community Transformation Grant from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, through the County of San Diego. Two of the grant's goals are to communicate to our families our pledge to provide high quality, healthy meals to our students and to provide equipment and supplies to our kitchens to facilitate fresh produce preparation.

The girl holding oranges is the daughter of one of our farmers and the students at the salad bar are from Logan Elementary School.

For more information contact Ashley Cassat, Farm to School Specialist at acassat@sandi.net

September Harvest of the Month: Plums and pluots on salad bars

The Harvest of the Month in San Diego Unified cafeterias this month are plums and pluots from Kingsburg Orchards in the town of Kingsburg, in California's Central Valley.

The Harvest of the Month program a different California-grown and/ or organic fruit or vegetable each month in our Kid’s Choice Café salad bars. Fruits and vegetables chosen are grown in San Diego County, Southern California or California by family farms.

"We have the best kids and the best farms in the world," said Gary Petill, Food Services Director. "We want California food for our California kids."

Part of a larger program called Farm to School, San Diego Unified's program connects K-12 students with local family farms so that they may eat fresh local foods in school and gain a greater appreciation for local agriculture, especially what it takes to grow healthy fresh foods. The grower this month, Kingsburg Orchard, is a farming dynasty with more than 10 family members managing the farm today and more than five generations of farming experience. The orchards are located in the San Joaquin Valley, and they qualify as one of Farm to School’s California farms.

Pluots are a sweet and juicy hybrid of plums and apricots and a great source of Vitamins C and A and fiber, that students can enjoy with plums on the salad bar on Wednesdays in September. To learn more about our programs, please visit the Food Services website.

Locally grown fruits, vegetables on lunch trays hits a million pounds

 A million pounds of local, regional and organic food has been served to San Diego Unified students during the past three years.

Since 2010, the one million pounds has included apples from Julian, certified organic blackberries and other healthy fruits and vegetables grown in San Diego and California, brought fresh to Kids' Choice Cafés in elementary schools and SanDi Coast Cafés at middle and high schools.

"What this means is that our kids are eating the freshest and best food we can give them," said Gary Petill, Food Services Director. "There's nothing better in the world than what our partners, the farmers of California, grow in the local sunshine."

Over the three years, the amount of locally grown items on your school's lunch menu has gone from less than two percent to more than 15 percent. The program began in 2010 when the District participated in a federal grant allocated to the County of San Diego. The grant is gone but the fresh choices remain.

"We try for a very diverse menu on our salad bar," said Petill. "Many of our customers eat in our restaurants every day of the week -- some twice a day. We have to keep them happy and the local produce helps us do that."

This school year, nearly 600,000 pounds -- nearly $250,000 worth -- of produce has been purchased from local farms, including some that are in the city of San Diego, said Vanessa Zajfen, the District's Farm to School Specialist. Menu items this year included Organic Kabocha Squash from Suzie's Farm in South Bay, Organic Persimmons grown by Sahu Sub-Tropicals in Fallbrook and Rainbow; and tofu from the San Diego Soy Dairy.

The farm-to-school program builds on a tradition of healthy and tasty lunches at the District. This is the tenth school year that San Diego Unified has had salad bars in elementary schools; the seniors that will graduate from high school in a next week have grown up with salad bars in their schools. These students have learned to make positive, healthy choices by having salad bars in their schools. Every day, they can choose a variety of fruits and vegetables – load up on one or another today, change up with something else tomorrow. But it's all healthy, said Petill.

This isn't costing taxpayers any extra; it's all done within the amount provided by the federal government's school lunch subsidy and what students pay for lunch: $2 elementary, $2.50 middle and high school. And 61 percent of the district's students are low income and receive free or reduced-priced lunches.

For more information on the district's Food Services Program, contact Petill at gpetill@sandi.net. There's also more information on the Farm To School website.

Community Transformation Grant Goes to Food Services Department

The innovative "Farm To School" program in San Diego Unified's Food Services Department has received a $750,000, five-year grant to continue and expand local farm tours, farmer-in-the-classroom visits, nutrition education and cooking demonstrations.

Part of an overall grant to the County of San Diego's Healthy Works program from the federal Affordable Care Act's Prevention and Public Health Fund, the 10-year Live Well San Diego! plan will work to make San Diego a healthier place.

"This is a fantastic opportunity to continue what has become a very popular program with our students and families," said Gary Petill, Food Services Director. "Not only do we take the farm to our students and our students to the farm, but it also allows us to continue to purchase great quality fruit and vegetables from our local growers."

For more information, contact Petill at ppetill@sandi.net.

Sunset View Elementary Takes Food Day Crown

San Diego's Food Day School Passport Challenge brought nearly 1,000 San Diego Unified School District students, staff and families to three Farmers Markets  around the city, with Sunset View Elementary winning the challenge over Rosa Parks, Central, Cherokee Point, Crown Point and Pacific Beach elementary schools. Sunset View received a healthy local food party catered by Chef Andrew Spurgin of Waters Fine Catering.

Students and their families were invited to visit their local Farmer's Market throughout the week of Oct. 14 for fun activities to introduce students to new fruits and vegetables and meet their local farmers. Multiple activity stations were set-up at each Farmers’ Market where the students received a stamp on their Food Day Passports. Activities included “ask a farmer” what local means or “try me” local food taste tests. When the passport were full, kids received "Market Bucks" to purchase local produce. The school with the most completed passports, Sunset View, won the party.

Food Day was organized by 15 community agencies driven by Kate McDevitt of UCSD’s Network for a Healthy California and supported by the district's Food Services Department. Other supporters included local businesses such as Local Habit and EcoCaters, chefs such as Andrew Spurgin, farmers and volunteers from Slow Food Urban San Diego. The passports where printed for free by Thomas Ackerman of Spirit Graphics.

The volunteers demonstrated a strong commitment to San Diego Unified ’s students and the mission to develop healthier eaters and thus better learners. Food Day activities also support the good food and farming message found in San Diego Unified’s cafeterias every day on salad bars and the local seasonal Harvest of the Month.

For more information, contact Vanessa Zajifen, Farm To School Coordinator, at vzajfen@sandi.net.

Farm Bus One Step Closer to Reality

Supt. Bill Kowba, left,
Whole Foods Marketing,
Liz Kahler, Board President
John Lee Evans, Whole
Foods Marketing Ray Kau,
Farm to School Specialist,
Vanessa Zajfen and Food
Services Director Gary Petill.

Whole Foods Markets in Hillcrest and La Jolla presented a check for $10,385.30 to San Diego Unified from their March "Five Percent Day" that supported San Diego Unified's Farm Bus program. Supt. Bill Kowba, Board President John Lee Evans along with Food Services Director Gary Petill and Farm to School Specialist, Vanessa Zajfen accepted the check.

The Farm Bus, a farm built inside a bus, was conceived to expand the Farm to School program by creating a living-learning lab that will travel to schools and engage students in concepts of sustainable agriculture and nutrition. The Farm Bus’s goal is to inspire healthy eating through interactive learning.

"Additional financing will be required for completion," said Zajfen, "but a big thank you is necessary to Whole Foods Market who stepped up from the beginning to support this project."

For more information about the Farm Bus Project contact Zajfen at vzajfen@sandi.net or 858-627-7310.

Greening of Taft Middle School Brings Community Together

The San Diego Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), in partnership with the Friends of Ruffin Canyon and the ACE Mentor Program, have completed the design and installation of an educational and native garden, "The HabiTaft Garden," for William H. Taft Middle School in Serra Mesa.

At the May 31 dedication, Principal Mike George welcomed guests, followed by remarks from San Diego Superintendent of Schools, Bill Kowba and Gary Petill, Food Services Director for the San Diego Unified School District. As part of the celebration there were demonstrations that included composting, worms,planting and native plants.

The 2011 Legacy Project for the ALSA, The HabiTaft Garden was selected because it presented an ideal forum for reconnecting children with the environment and exposing them to the practice of landscape architecture. Installation of the garden began in October 2011 with school officials, landscape architects, students and Friends of Ruffin Canyon digging in.

ASLA volunteers developed and hosted design workshops for ACE Mentor High School Students as part of the Legacy Project. The first workshop was heldat the site where the students learned how to prepare a site-analysis plan by observing and documenting existing site conditions. The subsequent workshops were held at The New School of Architecture and Design in downtown San Diego. These workshops led the students through the landscape architecture-design process from concept through construction documents.

During the workshops, students learned about the value and diversity of canyon land and watersheds in San Diego and how they related to their site. They learned about urban agriculture and the benefits of reconnecting to natural processes through gardening. The students documented their site-analysis, programmed the site, generated a master plan for the campus, and designed a small educational garden, which they helped construct at Taft Middle School.

In the next stage of the Legacy Project, Taft will develop curriculum that allows students to discover nature, investigate history, and celebrate culture through working and learning in the garden. The garden is universally accessible, providing opportunities where children of all abilities can explore San Diego¹s rich and diverse landscape. The Friends of Ruffin will use the garden¹s greenhouse to grow seedlings that will be planted in Ruffin Canyon, which is adjacent to Taft Middle School.The HabiTaft Garden Legacy Project celebrates the mission of the American Society of Landscape Architects, which is to lead, educate and participate in the careful stewardship, wise planning and artful design of our cultural and natural environments.

Harvest of the Month are Pixie Tangerines from Ojai

Ojai Pixie Tangerines are the June Harvest of the Month from the Food Services Department and will be enjoyed by students at the more than 30 schools that are on year-round schedules.

"The Pixie Tangerine comes only from this small valley high above on the lower central coast," said Vanessa Zajfen, Farm To School Specialist. "Pixie tangerines are pale orange colored, moderately juicy and always seedless."

Each month, cafeterias serve a Harvest of the Month that brings a fresh vegetable or fruit from a nearby field to our students. The Farm to School program connects schools and local farms with the objectives of serving healthy meals in school cafeterias, improving student nutrition, providing agriculture, health and nutrition education opportunities and supporting local and regional farmers.

For the Pixie Tangerine, students will learn that it was developed right here in Southern California, Howard B. Frost at the University of California Citrus Research Center at Riverside, in 1927. They grow only in the Ojai Valley, north of Santa Barbara.

A collective of 40 small family farmers works together to meet the high demand for their tangerines. Some of the orchards are small with just a few dozen trees, while others have several thousand. Each orchard is harvested individually when the fruit is at its peak.

"We think this will be very popular with all our students," said Zajfen. "Even our kindergarteners with their little fingers can enjoy this Pixie."

For more information, go to the Food Services website at www.sandi.net/food and click on "Farm to School." The Pixie has its own website at http://www.pixietangerine.com/

Bus Farm Rolling Onto Completion Thanks to Whole Foods

Artists' concept of the Bus Farm.

The San Diego Unified School District’s innovative new Bus Farm project is gaining momentum thanks to Whole Foods Markets in Hillcrest and La Jolla. The stores will donate 5 percent of their net sales on Wednesday, March 21, to support the new Bus Farm.

Events at the 5 Percent Day will include student art displays and professional designers’ visions of the Bus Farm, chefs creating dishes using fresh local produce, and blender bike powered smoothie samples.

The Hillcrest store will feature its Metro Chef Dennis Horton and South Park’s Alchemy chef Ricardo Heredia working with aspiring student chefs. At the La Jolla store, Kari Rich, chef of the Food Farm food truck will dish up her creations to support the event.

The Bus Farm, a farm built inside a bus, was conceived to expand San Diego Unified's Farm to School program by creating a living-learning lab that will travel to schools and engage students in concepts of sustainable agriculture and nutrition. The Bus Farm’s goal is to inspire healthy eating through interactive learning.

Bus Farm activities will take place from 2-6 p.m. at the Hillcrest store, 711 University Avenue, and from 4-7 p.m. at the La Jolla store, 8825 Villa La Jolla Drive.

For more information email Vanessa Zajfen, Farm to School Specialist at vzajfen@sandi.net.

• Visit the Farm to School web page.

New Booklet for Kids Traces Food's Path from Farm to Table

Just how does food get from the farm to your table?

A new book for kids is now available that helps kids understand where their food is grown and how local farms can help them be healthier.

Created in collaboration with San Diego Unified's Food Services department, Farm to Table Adventure is full of fun coloring, guessing and imagination building activities that teach children why where there food comes from is an important thing to know, as well as building strong case for why local foods keep children healthy and strong, according to Vanessa Zajfen, San Diego Unified's Farm to School Specialist.

"The content for this booklet was written by FSD staff and illustration created by an amazing Australian design firm," she
said.
For more information, contact Zajfen at vzajfen@sandi.net.