United, Fresh Produce & Floral Council Team Up To Drive Produce Sales To Schools

WASHINGTON, DC – United Fresh is teaming up with the Fresh Produce & Floral Council (FPFC) to host “Opportunities to Drive Produce Sales to Schools”, a special educational workshop on the morning of December 12, 2012 at the Sheraton Cerritos Hotel in Cerritos, CA. The workshop will bring together school food service directors, grower-shippers and produce distributors from southern California and be held prior to FPFC’s Holiday Luncheon and Charity Auction.

Healthier school lunches, salad bars and the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program are increasing the amount and variety of fresh fruits and vegetables purchased by schools, and these programs are creating new business opportunities for all sectors of the produce industry. Recent changes in the National School Lunch Program now require schools to double the amount of fruits and vegetables served each day, and serve a colorful variety of vegetables each week. In California hundreds of schools have salad bars and the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, creating tremendous demand for fresh produce. Schools are looking for innovative ways to incorporate fresh produce in their school menus and develop partnerships with the produce industry.

United Fresh vice president of nutrition and health, Dr. Lorelei DiSogra, will kick-off the workshop with an overview of the new fruit and vegetable school lunch requirements and other initiatives aimed at creating healthier school food environments. The workshop will also feature innovative school foodservice directors who are incorporating a variety of strategies to increase the availability of fresh fruits and vegetables in their schools:

·         Jennifer McNeil and Brad Knipscheer, Hemet Unified School District, Hemet, CA

·         Cathy Tang, Lynwood Unified School District, Lynwood, CA

·         Laurel Goins, Rio School District, Oxnard, CA

·         Kara Muniz, Hueneme Elementary School District, Port Hueneme, CA 

“All of our schools have salad bars and every day we offer eight different fruit and vegetable choices”, said Laurel Goins, Rio School District Foodservice Director. “We work closely with our produce distributor who sources a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables that our students enjoy, and delivers fresh produce to all of our schools at least twice a week.”

“To enhance opportunities for our members, we teamed-up with United Fresh to host this workshop on how to drive produce sales to schools,” said Carissa Mace, president, FPFC. The joint United Fresh-FPFC workshop will take place from 8 to 11 am on December 12 immediately prior to the FPFC Holiday Luncheon and Charity Auction, which will benefit Let’s Move Salad Bars to California Schools and Wounded Warriors.

Let’s Move Salad Bars to California Schools is a special campaign of the United Fresh Foundation, under the umbrella of the national Let's Move Salad Bars to Schools initiative (LMSB2S). The goal of Let’s Move Salad Bars to California Schools is to increase students’ fruit and vegetable consumption by donating salad bars to 350 California schools to be celebrated at the United Fresh 2013 convention in San Diego in May.

Registration for the FPFC Holiday Luncheon and workshop is available through the FPFC website. For more information, please contact Jeff Oberman, United Fresh vice president of membership & trade relations, at 831-422-0940.

Founded in 1904, the United Fresh Produce Association serves companies at the forefront of the global fresh and fresh-cut produce industry, including growers, shippers, fresh-cut processors, wholesalers, distributors, retailers, foodservice operators, industry suppliers and allied associations. From its headquarters in Washington, D.C. and Western Regional office in Salinas, Calif., United Fresh and its members work year-round to make a difference for the produce industry by driving policies that increase consumption of fresh produce, shaping critical legislative and regulatory action, providing scientific and technical leadership in food safety, quality assurance, nutrition and health, and developing educational programs and business opportunities to assist member companies in growing successful businesses. For more information, visit www.unitedfresh.org or call 202-303-3400.

Source: United Fresh Produce Association