Salad Bars Go High Tech, United Fresh Start Foundation Partners With Silicon Valley Leaders To Support Salad Bars For Schools

San Jose, CA – Children in schools throughout Silicon Valley have access to new salad bars with a wide variety of fresh fruit and vegetable choices, thanks to a coalition of partners from the renowned high-tech business sector in San Jose.

On Monday, the United Fresh Start Foundation joined the Silicon Valley Leadership Group

Foundation at a salad bar ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate and recognize the Leadership Group’s donation of salad bars to 120 San Jose-area schools over the past two years. The announcement was made at Aptitud Academy in East San Jose, where elementary school students are now enjoying choices from the salad bar every day. Salad bars have been donated to 19 school districts in the San Jose area, and are benefitting an estimated 98,000 students every school day.

“These salad bar donations are providing our local schools with 21st century cafeterias that highlight fresh options each day,” said Carl Guardino, President & CEO, Silicon Valley Leadership Group. “Our Heart & Soles 5K, and today’s special announcement, has enabled us to bring together the community, connecting children, parents, advocates, school administrators and leaders in government, the non-profit and private sector to inspire the next generation to live healthy, active lives. It’s a win-win for us all.”

“It is so gratifying to be standing in the center of the Silicon Valley, working with the world’s leading tech companies to increase kids’ access to fresh fruits and vegetables,” said United Fresh Start Foundation President Tom Stenzel. “The commitment shown by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group is a testament to the fact that providing children with easy access to healthy, fresh food is a universal goal that cuts across our diverse business interests.

Together, we can influence the next generation to choose healthy fresh produce snacks and meal choices.”

Research and experience in schools across the country demonstrate that children significantly increase their fruit and vegetable consumption when given a variety of choices in a school salad bar. When offered multiple fruit and vegetable choices, children respond by incorporating greater variety and increasing their overall consumption. Salad bars empower students to make their own healthy choices and create excitement about trying new fruits and vegetables, ultimately increasing children’s daily consumption. Additionally, new USDA nutrition standards require schools to serve an increased amount and variety of fruits and vegetables each day, and salad bars are the easiest way for schools to meet these requirements.

The two groups first came together in 2013, following United Fresh’s successful yearlong produce industry campaign to support salad bars for California schools. The “Let’s Move Salad Bars to California Schools” campaign resulted in the donation of salad bars to 436 California schools throughout the state. The United Fresh Start Foundation has since worked closely with the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and the California Department of Education, headed by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, to continue supporting healthier school meals for local schools.

Now in its third year, the March 12, 2016 “Heart and Soles 5K” sponsored by Lam Research will once again benefit salad bars for Silicon Valley area schools. Silicon Valley-area schools that are interested in requesting salad bars can visit the Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools website, www.saladbars2schools.org, for details and information about submitting an application.

Since 2010, the national Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools initiative has facilitated the donation of salad bars to more than 4,100 schools in all 50 states, benefitting nearly 3 million children every school day. Salad bars have been donated to 1,030 California schools, the most of any state.

The 19 school districts that have received salad bars from the Silicon Valley Leadership Group Foundation, include:

1. Alum Rock Elementary School District (San Jose, CA)

2. Cambrian School District (San Jose, CA)

3. Castro Valley Unified School District (Castro Valley, CA)

4. Dublin Unified School District (Dublin, CA)

5. East Side Union High School District (San Jose, CA)

6. Franklin-McKinley Unified School District (San Jose, CA)

7. Fremont Unified School District (Fremont, CA)

8. Gilroy Unified School District (Gilroy, CA)

9. Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District (Livermore, CA)

10. Los Gatos Union School District (Los Gatos, CA)

11. Moreland School District (San Jose, CA)

12. New Haven Unified School District (Union City, CA)

13. Oak Grove Unified School District (San Jose, CA)

14. Pajaro Valley Unified School District (Watsonville, CA)

15. San Lorenzo Valley Unified School District (Felton, CA)

16. Santa Cruz City Schools (Santa Cruz, CA)

17. Saratoga Union School District (Saratoga, CA)

18. Soquel Union Elementary School District (Capitola, CA)

19. Union School District (San Jose, CA)

About the Silicon Valley Leadership Group Foundation

The purpose of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group Foundation is to help improve the quality of life in the Silicon Valley region through the provision of funding for food, clothing, shelter, medical care, education and other basic necessities of life. The Foundation supports activities that drive a strong sense of community engagement and serves as a forum for non-partisan research and analysis of public policy issues affecting the Silicon Valley region. It focuses on providing financial and promotional assistance to charities, business and community leaders, scholars or other groups that support its mission.

About The United Fresh Start Foundation

The United Fresh Start Foundation is a 501 (c)(3) not-for-profit organization focused exclusively on increasing children’s access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Affiliated with the United Fresh Produce Association, the Foundation is committed to helping today’s kid’s achieve the public health goal to make half their plate fruits and vegetables in order to live longer and healthier lives. We work to create an environment in which kids have easy access to high-quality, great-tasting and affordable fresh fruits and vegetables, whenever and wherever they are choosing snacks or a meal.

About Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools

Let's Move Salad Bars to Schools is a public health campaign to increase salad bars in schools across the country so that every child has the choice of healthy fruits and vegetables every day at school. Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools supports First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move! initiative to end childhood obesity in a generation. Founding partners are: The United Fresh Start Foundation, National Fruit and Vegetable Alliance, Chef Ann Foundation, and Whole Foods Market. More information can be found online at www.saladbars2schools.org

Source: United Fresh Start Foundation