WASHINGTON, D.C. – Over the past year, the twelve members of United Fresh Produce Industry Leadership Program’s Class 20 raised funds to support the donation of 28 salad bars for schools. The group’s donations will benefit nearly 15,000 children in 10 states across the country, including Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New York, Ohio and Texas.
The donations will assist schools with meeting the new school lunch nutrition standards, while empowering students to choose their own fruits and vegetables from a variety of choices on the salad bar each day.
“The members of Class 20 share a passion for increasing children’s produce consumption and doing what we can to ensure the next generation grows up with easy access to fresh, healthy food,” said class member Hilary Martin Long, Director of Business Development for Frey Farms. “Supporting the United Fresh Start Foundation and its work with salad bars for schools just seemed like a natural fit.”
Long added, “Throughout the past year on our ‘leadership journey’ we’ve been able to interact with so many industry leaders who have shared their time, knowledge and expertise with us. It’s been incredible and demonstrated to us the importance of giving back. That’s why Class 20 organized our respective companies, friends and industry colleagues to support Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools.”
The Class 20 fellows organized this class project to give back to the industry and their respective communities.
The 28 salad bars facilitated by Class 20 will benefit the following schools/school districts:
School District City State
- Hyder School District Dateland AZ
- Santa Cruz Valley USD No. 35 Rio Rico AZ
- Panama-Buena Vista Union School District Bakersfield CA
- Las Virgenes Unified School District Calabasas CA
- Sacramento City Unified School District Sacramento CA
- Union School District San Jose CA
- Upland Unified School District Upland CA
- Coral Spring Charter School Coral Springs FL
- Gwinnett County Public Schools Lawrenceville GA
- Niles Elementary School District 71 Niles IL
- North Lawrence Community Schools Bedford IN
- The Oaks Academy Indianapolis IN
- South Haven Public Schools South Haven MI
- Charter School for Applied Technologies Buffalo NY
- Oakfield Alabama Central School District Oakfield NY
- Urban Choice Charter School Rochester NY
- Cloverleaf Local Schools Lodi OH
- KIPP San Antonio San Antonio TX
These salad bar donations were made possible with the support of the following companies and individuals:
Advance Customs and Brokers LLC; Big Chuy; Cayuga Produce; Dan Andrews Farms LLC; Daumar Corporation; Del Don Chemical Company; DFI Marketing; Fresh Express; Fresh Farms; Fresh Gourmet/Sugar Foods; Frey Farms; Frieda's Inc; General Produce; Giorgio Fresh; Graves Packaging Solutions LLC; GreenPoint Distributing LLC; Grow Farms; Holthouse Farms; Icardo Farms; IFCO Systems N.A.; IG Fruit; International Paper; Jac. Vandenberg, Inc.; Kings River Packing; Kirschenman Enterprises; Marie's (Ventura Foods); Mas Melons & Grapes; Matt McInerney; Mijac Alarm; Morada Produce Co.; National Watermelon Association; National Watermelon Promotion Board; NatureSweet; Naturipe Farms; New York Bold; Next Gen Agro; Prima Frutta/Primavera; Pro Citrus Network; Red Blossom Sales; Seald Sweet/UNIVEG Group; Sigma Sales; Sunterra Produce Traders, Inc.; Ten Star Farming; Twin Lake Cranberry Co., LLC; Uesugi Farms; Van Groningen & Sons; and Yuma Safe Produce Council.
The recently graduated Class 20 members include:
Mike Anderson, Kingston Fresh; Stephanie Barlow, National Watermelon Promotion Board; Leah Brakke, Black Gold; Jeff Cady, Tops Markets, Inc.; Jacquie Ediger, Pro Citrus Network, Inc.; Kimberly Flores, Seald-Sweet LLC/UNIVEG Group; Aaron Hunter, Caito Foods Service, Inc.; Alex Jackson, Frieda's, Inc.; Brian Knott, Grow Farms; Hilary Martin Long, Frey Farms; Ryan Van Groningen, Van Groningen & Sons, Inc., and Kami Weddle, Rousseau Farming Company.
The members of Leadership Class 20 recently graduated at the 2015 United Fresh convention in Chicago. This also marked the twentieth year of the Produce Industry Leadership Program, which has been made possible through the support of program sponsor DuPont Crop Protection since 1995. In addition to the graduation of Leadership Class 20, the new members of Leadership Class 21 were also announced. For more information about the United Fresh Produce Industry Leadership Program visit www.unitedfredh.org or contact Miriam Wolk, Vice President, Member Services at 202-303-3410.
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.
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. Let’s
Move Salad Bars to Schools founding partners are: The United Fresh Start Foundation, National Fruit and Vegetable Alliance, the Chef Ann Foundation and Whole Kids Foundation. More information can be found online at www.saladbars2schools.org.
Source: United Fresh Start Foundation
