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Module 2 - A Rainbow of Seasonal Choices

The Pot of Gold…What Kids Really Like!

It’s a new horizon for more fresh fruits and vegetables at breakfast .

Today there is an array of fresh fruits and vegetables available through out the school year. Our children are now able to enjoy a wide variety of fruits and vegetables-- not only at lunch, but during a healthy school breakfast as well!   What better way to start a student’s day with colorful, tasty fruits and veggies in a rainbow of choices?

Lots of innovative and creative school nutrition personnel are leading the way into a healthier new era for our kids. 

One such exemplary person is student nutrition director, Rafaelita Curva, or R.C. as she is known to many, of Davis Joint Unified School District.  She and her staff have reinvented themselves with one main goal in mind – the health and welfare of the students in their community.  Her determination to get a delicious and nutritious variety of fresh fruits and vegetables on the plates of her students has paid off. One of the ways her district was able to meet their goals was by concentrating labor at a central kitchen. All receiving, storing, and preparation of fresh produce happens at this one location in order to maximize their ability to serve an abundant variety of produce. Her kitchen managers all gather at the central kitchen each morning to assist in the prep and division of produce, and then they each transport it to their individual sites for breakfast and lunch service.  The process is efficient and saves the district a lot of money on their other  facilities – more money to purchase and promote fresh produce for students.

R. C. also has a good relationship with a produce vendor she trusts and relies on for current supplies and quality produce.  Jan Burkett, of Piranha Produce, communicates regularly with R.C. to discuss the district’s purchasing options, what her kitchen managers should know about upcoming cycles, and possible deals she can get on specific produce.  Jan and her drivers work with R.C. to accommodate the district’s specific needs for receiving produce.

Another vehicle for R.C.’s success is her association with local farmers. Many directors throughout the California are developing relationships with local farmers.  She has created relationships with nearby farms, many of which are at the community farmers’ market and the regional Community Alliance with Family Farmers known as CAFF.  She has maximized her ability to purchase everything fresh and in-season.  She took advantage of her setup at a central kitchen, which allows for single deliveries from local farmers and vendors.  R.C.’s managers are taking the freshest, most delicious variety of unusual produce back to each of their schools for students to enjoy.

One of the main reasons the efforts of R.C. and her staff are supported is that through their efforts, they have been able to increase student participation in their breakfast program  by more than 40%  Yes, truly a pot of gold, more students eating more fruits and vegetables, and a community invested  in their childrens’ health and wellness.

Using resources effectively, developing relationships with local farmers, relying on good vendors to support her menu planning, and making her efforts known to the community, Rafaelita Curva  has made a name for herself in school nutrition services,  and because of this the children of today  are enjoying fresh, in-season fruits and vegetables every day.

The Pot of Gold…What Kids Really Eat!

The easiest way to learn what your students prefer is to observe and gather information.

• Mingle, talk, and listen to students during meal service to learn what produce students prefer.
  
• Look at student trays, what students bring to school to eat, and what students toss into trash cans.
• Consider how the produce students choose to eat is prepared. For example, do students prefer melon cubes or melon wedges?
• Watch what industry is serving and how they are serving it, what the trends are, and what produce is available at local markets. Students often learn about fruits and vegetables outside the home.
• Talk to your managers, your custodians, your parents, your produce vendor and your local farmers. These audiences have ideas and information regarding student preferences.
• Surf the Internet. The links below provide a vast array of strategies to support your efforts to increase student’s preference for produce.

Taking it Further

Involve the entire school community when identifying student preferences. Keep the process simple and explain how community support helps students eat healthier.

• Conduct surveys in the cafeteria. Before breakfast service begins, post three posters at the cafeteria exits. Have a breakfast aide provide a “sampling” and a “sticky dot” to each student. As students leave, ask them to place the dot in their favorite of the three preference categories.
• Survey students in a classroom. On a board write the one to three categories students can choose once they try the fruits and vegetables. Provide samples to students one at a time. Have students lower their heads and raise their hand to make their choice.
• Use formal surveys, which provide written feedback from every student participating in a taste testing. There are examples of surveys for both elementary and secondary students in the connections to this page.

Taking it Sky High

Students are more likely to try new foods if they see other students introducing, enjoying, and eating them. Click the photos below for ideas. 

• Have older students conduct a “taste-test” of a new fruit or vegetable with younger students. Older students mentoring younger children is a great way to encourage participation through role modeling.
• Form a Student Nutrition Advisory Council (NAC). Gather a group of student advocates to determine how to introduce fruits and vegetables at breakfast. Be sure the NAC communicates and shares information with your wellness committee, school administers and staff, and school board.

Choices, Changes and Considerations

There are so many choices and considerations to think about as you assess and plan to make more fruits and vegetables available to your students at breakfast.  Use the easy two-step process to get started…

Assessment

Consider your program by posing these questions to yourself, your staff, and your colleagues.

Ask:

• What is currently served on the breakfast menu?
• What is currently in season for the monthly menu?
• How much dry, refrigerated, and/or frozen storage will be needed for additional produce?
• What preparation areas and equipment will be necessary to prepare and/or serve the produce?
• Is staff adequately trained?
• Are there adequate labor hours to handle the additional work?
• Are there conflicting demands due to production and meal times?

Project Planning

With the information gathered from the assessment, answer the questions posed below to support your decision-making process.

Considerations:

• Based on our assessment, what does the program have the capacity to do?
• What is the projected increase in produce usage?
• What types and forms of produce will be incorporated into breakfast?
• How will the additional ½ cup of produce be prepared and served?
• How many servings will different fruits yield?

Solve the Seasonal Mystery…When to Purchase

Each of these School Nutrition Directors chose different approaches to selecting, preparing, and serving fruits and vegetables for breakfast. Although their approaches were different, each one was successful in increasing healthy breakfast choices and fresh produce consumption among students.

Clip 1:

Mary Tolan-Davi in Manteca USD
Mary: In our district, we’ve really taken a fairly simple approach to breakfast and increasing our fruit consumption at that time. We use our garden bar from lunch, and we place a variety of fresh fruits in that bar. They look very attractive, and we’ve found that we all really eat with our eyes, so color and appeal, making the arrangement of fruit attractive, is what really encourages students to select and consume the fruit. When we serve the apples we put out a variety of red, green, yellow, we throw in tangerines, whatever might be in season. And we’ve found that actually it’s very simple. If we have maybe a little bit of fruit left over from lunch the day before, we put it out at breakfast, because it increases the variety and choices that kids have to make. We were able to add fruit to our breakfast menu without really making any major changes. We didn’t add labor, we didn’t need to purchase new equipment, we utilized what we had. And through a creative arrangement of foods on the garden bar, we were able to offer a great variety of choices at breakfast. So I want to encourage everyone to really try this. It’s simpler than it sounds, and it’s really a great opportunity for kids.

Clip 2:

Robert Schram
Robert: Part of our program is the farm-to-school program, and what we do is we work with local farmers in our community to make this program a success. We went out and found farmers who were willing to package food and to bring it to us. The advantage to the farm-to-school program is when the food comes in, it’s picked that day or the day before, versus getting a piece of fruit that’s been packaged and sitting in a storage facility for up to 30 days, we have fruit that comes right from the trees. In doing that, the students really think, “Wow! This is really what an orange is supposed to taste like!” Because it’s picked, literally, the day before or that day and brought directly to our site, where it’s consumed by the child. One of the first things you need to do if you’re gonna try and work with the local farmers is you have to have standards, and you have to let them know what the standards are gonna be. There’s gonna be standards of quality of product, how the product will become packed, what the pricing’s gonna be…You’ll probably want to go out and see the farm, ask them how they’re gonna handle sanitation, are they gonna pick it themselves? Do they have pickers that are gonna pick it? And when will you receive it? So you need to ensure that your farmer’s a reliable source of produce. And you wanna go out to the farm and you wanna say, “Hey, is this really gonna work for my student population?” After doing that, you’ll know once you see the farm whether they have good standards or bad standards. And that’ll be our next step to ensure that we have safe food delivered to the classroom, and it’s the best possible produce we can get for our students.

Clip 3:

Jeff Davidson
Jeff: It was about three, three and a half years ago, we looked at overall food services at Sanger Unified and decided we were serving way too much juice. So we started thinking out of the box, and we went and started talking to local farmers, asking them, “Can we get fruit from you?” How can we buy it? Were there packing houses we could buy it from? If we had such a high volume that one or two farmers couldn’t handle our fresh fruit demands daily. So we started knocking on packing houses’ doors. And we found that we can buy fresh, locally grown produce from six to eight cents apiece. So what we did at that point was we made arrangements to where our food service trucks could pick up from the local packing houses fresh fruit twice a week. So we implemented that. And we started out with oranges. We started going from what we normally would serve one case of oranges in a five-day period in the high school to 60 cases of oranges. And then we’d go to 120 cases of oranges. Then we’d go to 200 cases of oranges weekly. Then we implemented another packing house, we started getting fresh apples. And then we started going through 70, 80, 90, 100 cases of fresh apples. And the buy-in from the students was phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal. We used to put a bowl of fresh fruit out, and we’d probably sell, out of 50 pieces we’d sell 10. Now we put a bowl in each classroom. And each classroom that does breakfast in the class has fresh fruit, and any leftover fruit that the kids have they put back in the bowl and it’s offered to other children. And our breakfast in the class was successful, we put it into breakfast in the cafeteria. And we found out we had to get salad bars just to hold the fruit, because so much fruit was going. I attribute most of that participation to the buy-in the students have and the fresh fruit that has brought those children into the cafeteria.

Solve the Seasonal Mystery…When to Purchase continued

• Check with your County Farm Bureau office for information regarding the availability of produce in your specific region of California.
• Use California Availability Produce Charts that provide a minimum of three categories for availability: peak season, available, and not available.  
• Plan monthly or weekly phone calls to your produce vendor to gather information about availability.
• Determine and stipulate the degree of ripeness upon delivery to avoid under- or over-ripe fruit.
• Consider the time period between delivery date and serving date to serve produce at its peak.
• Provide an excellent fresh produce reference and district produce specifications for staff members who plan and purchase produce.
• Supply a quick guide to fresh produce at facilities that handle produce.

Sleuth the Sources

When purchasing fruits and vegetables, you must consider a number of factors such as price, product selection, availability of product, reliability of the seller, delivery service, delivery schedule, receiving, and service charges. Check out the path/road below for ideas about a few common sources.

Beginning of path:

You probably already have a produce vendor. Talk with your current vendor to determine if they can provide service for increased quantity and varieties of produce.

Crossroad:

If you decide to consider other sources of produce, getting to know your purchasing options and the produce professionals is essential.

3 Final destinations on paths containing video clips with following titles:

Direct, Distributors, Department of Defense

Direct (Direct includes 3 videos of local farmers and farmer’s markets.):

Text next to “Direct” video clip:
Establishing a purchasing relationship with local farmers has several benefits:

• Increases access to fresh, in-season produce closer to harvest time
  
• Directly supports local economy
  
• Opportunity to develop relationships with farmers who specialize in different categories of produce, such as citrus, stone fruit, and greens.
  
• Education of school community about local farmers and their produce

Clip 1:

Annie Thomas – Ripple Riley Thomas Farms
Annie: Some ideas about working with farmers like me for your school food service program would be one, to make a really good chain of communication. To be very clear in what your needs are to a farmer. Farmers think in terms of total size and production of crops. They don’t necessarily think of size as servings, and that a serving actually represents a child on the cafeteria line. Farmers think in terms of weight, not necessarily in volume, so you do need to do a little training with them on that. You can take advantage of some great last-minute deals, especially with farmers, because a lot of times we’ll pack out our crop, and we won’t know exactly where our size profiles are going. And quite often, we’ll end up with a lot smaller fruit than what we’d care to admit to. And that’s a perfect outlet for schools. So if you can have some flexibility with your menu planning to take advantage of these last-minute opportunities, you’ll get some great fruit at some great pricing. For those farmers that don’t have a commercial packing outlet available to them, be sure that you are very clear with them on your quality standards. A child isn’t going to take a piece of fruit that shows bruising or weird discoloration on it. The farmer may think that’s great, but you fully well know that’s not going to fly on the cafeteria line.

Clip 2:

Robert Ramming – Pacific Star Gardens
Robert: We have tours. We try to have a tour every week from April and May. We have kids in here from second grade, even university kids come through. And they pick a basket of strawberries, we give an age-appropriate tour, walk around the farm a bit, explain how we do things organically and about water, the soil. Why it’s important to eat fresh produce, because that’s what we grow here, and everybody goes away with, hopefully, a basket of strawberries for most of them to make it home. We’ve got melons, watermelons, the strawberry field right behind you there. These are all things that can go to the school. There’s not too many kids that’ll turn down a good cantaloupe or a good watermelon. Twelve months out of the year you can get fresh fruit for local consumption. We do a lot of tours with schools, come out here in the spring from Woodland, Davis, even as far away as the Bay Area. And the kids get a chance to see that lettuce does not come from the store, that it can grow here. What a strawberry plant looks like, what a tomato plant looks like, or even a watermelon plant. So we really enjoy doing tours, and we cooperate with CALF on the school tours, they have their farm-to-school program as well where they try and get local food into the schools.

Clip 3:

Randii Taylor – Davis Farmers Market
Randii: The farmers’ markets in California and all over the United States can serve as a great resource for school food service directors in a number of capacities. There are some food service directors who have been known to come directly to the farmers’ market and develop the relationships. They know all the farmers, they know what they grow, they know the types of personalities of the farmers, which can be very helpful as to what will be a successful sourcing relationship and what is not. Other things a farmers’ market can do in the education community is that they can actually go into the schools and do cooking demonstrations, tastings…Many farmers’ markets have a great tour program for school-age kids, so there’s quite a bit of programming out there that farmers’ markets are very anxious to connect with school food service directors.

Distributors

Text next to Distributor video clip:

When selecting vendors to best provide for your fruit and vegetable needs, there are several ways to start:

• Selecting the full, or broadline, and the specialty produce provider
  
• Visiting warehouse facilities and reviewing their operating procedures
  
• Comparing information about their specialty produce line

Clip of Jan Burkett - Piranha Produce

Jan: When dealing with a specialty distributor, the relationship is key. It’s imperative. It’s so important to know your produce distributor. Your produce distributor can do so much for you. She can tell you about seasonality, she can tell you about pack sizes, we go over the pricing with you. It’s just extremely important to communicate with your produce distributor. We send out weekly produce updates, tell you what’s happening out in the fields with the weather. That is all very important, and you need to know that for your program. It’s also valuable information that you can pass on to educate your staff. They need to know why the price of oranges has skyrocketed, or why the price of tangerines has come down to a very inexpensive price. And so communication is definitely, definitely the key. Another thing you want to keep in mind is food safety. When you’re looking for a produce vendor, you want to ask them what kind of food safety precautions they have in place. Do they have a HACEP program in place? Do they have a recall in place if they should need to recall some sort of product? And keep your staff informed of this also. Another thing you want to know about is whether or not your produce distributor can give handling and training of produce seminars for your staff. It’s important that they know how to handle the produce. It needs to be handled very carefully, it needs to be refrigerated, it needs to be put away as soon as the order is received, and so having this in a seminar is very important, and your produce company should provide that for you.

Department Of Defense

A number of agencies buy and distribute fresh fruits and vegetables to schools using the USDA's federal commodity entitlement dollars. This allows schools to:

• take advantage of the buying power of the Department of Defense Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Program
  
• purchase fresh produce at a lower cost
  
• supplement their menu with a wide variety of high quality produce

Learn more about purchasing opportunities with the DoD, and program specifics at the California Department of Education website listed in the resources on this page.

Ordering Quality and Quantity

What are some specific considerations when ordering fruits and vegetables?

“Considerations"

• grade
  
• growing region
  
• size
  
• variety
  
• count
  
• bulk or pre-portioned
  
• availability and price
  
• shelf life
  
• form

The Case for Quality Standards

Developing quality standards (specifications, descriptions, or identifications) can be the most difficult step in the purchasing process. Fortunately, there are several resources of sample specifications that can provide you the information to get the quality of produce you need and want. Understanding how specifications are written will help you know how to ask for what you want.

Here are some characteristics to consider in your district’s specifications for procuring and ordering fresh produce. To get the best results, be as specific as possible.

• Product quality
  
• Degree of ripeness
  
• Processing method(s)
  
• Packaging materials
  
• Acceptable Grade(s)
  
• Pounds per case
  
• Size and/or count per case
  
• Variety descriptions
  
• Receiving and inspecting procedures
  
• Delivery location
  
• Appropriate shipping temperature
  
• Troubleshooting product quality
  
• Photo of the product

It Takes Two

Director phone call with vendor to demonstrate relationship, support, resources, and ordering considerations of a fsd.

(phone ringing)
Jerry: Jerry’s Produce.
Lydia: Hi Jerry, how are you?
Jerry: Great. What can I do for you?
Lydia: Remember that idea I was talking to you about? Serving breakfast for the summer school meal?
Jerry: Yeah.
Lydia: Well, I just got approval from my business manager, and I’m ready to start menu planning for the first month of summer school. I was hoping to try some new produce items.
Jerry: Sure. Let’s start with stone fruit. I don’t think you have that on the menu.
Lydia: Well, I spent some time reviewing the specs, and I think I have an idea of what I’d like to try. Let’s start with nectarines. What can you tell me about availability?
Jerry: Most of my schools try to purchase locally grown. Would you like to do the same for the summer?
Lydia: I think so, but I still need to consider price. Since this is breakfast, my serving size is half a cup of fruit or vegetable each day.
Jerry: Most of my schools use yellow nectarine, which is more common and less expensive than the white nectarines. They generally choose 88 or 96 count to meet the requirement.
Lydia: Okay. And what varieties will you have available during August?
Jerry: At the beginning of August, we usually start with Red Gem, and then we move over to Summer Bright. At the end of the summer, August Red becomes available. These three varieties are all yellow nectarines with red skin. Most of my schools use these because they’re all local, and kids don’t seem to see the difference between them.
Lydia: Uh-huh. What about price? Will it fluctuate with the change in varieties?
Jerry: Well, because it’s the same farmer, I can get a consistent price for all three varieties. Would you like me to work up a quote for you?
Lydia: Sure. See what the price would be. Okay, let’s move on to plums.
Jerry: Plums are gonna run a few more pennies per serving than the nectarines. But you know what? I’ll try to work up a price within your budget.
Lydia: Okay, Jerry. I want to start with either blue or purple-skin varieties. These are more common. Oh, I forgot to mention, I still want all the quotes based on fruit that is to be packed to US Number One Grade.
Jerry: Will do. Now let’s see, for half a cup of fruit, we’re gonna need to use two-inch medium, with a count of five to six plums per pound.
Lydia: Would I get a better price if I waited until midseason to put plums on the menu?
Jerry: Actually, plums are available for a longer growing season than nectarines. So your first month of summer school is midseason.
Lydia: Okay. Well, I’ll plan to put them on the menu. If I can get a good price.
Jerry: Sounds good. Maybe I can find a local grower with a large crop since it’s been a good year.
Lydia: Great Jerry. Sounds like a plan. So next time let’s talk about pears, peaches…

Calculating Matters

Clip 1:
When to Order

Okay, I’ll talk to you next week. Bye. Okay, finally I’ve got some quiet time to prepare next week’s produce order. Let’s see. I need to begin with the breakfast menu for next week. I’ll start with strawberries and plums from my produce vendor, and then avocado from my local farmer. The strawberries are locally grown and once I get them in, I need to remember I’ve got a two-day window to serve them. So if the strawberries and plums come in the day before service, I can serve strawberries on Tuesday, and let the plums ripen and serve them by the end of the week. Here we go. My vendor told me the price difference between the different counts for plums, and the varieties in season now. So let me look at that, and I can…

Clip 2:
Determining Amounts to Order & Calculating the Figures

Okay. First, I need to check to see how the strawberries will be packed. All fruits and vegetables are packed in standard containers and weights, and each fruit or vegetable may have two or even three standard packs. They could be flats, or half flats, or cartons, or lugs…I know where to check this out: Fruits and Vegetables Galore. Or maybe the PMA Buying Guide, because they spell out the different standard packs. I can also use my buying guide to determine the number of servings and different portion sizes that can come from a specific standard pack for a specific fruit or vegetable. My vendor says the standard pack for strawberries is the 12-pound flat. So, how many half-cup edible portion servings will be in that one 12-pound flat? Hmm…I’m going to be serving whole berries. Let’s see, under strawberries, the first entry in column one of buying guide is strawberries, fresh, whole. Great. Now, I need to check on the purchase unit, or column two. I have a choice of pint or pound. The entry for pounds is a match for my purchase unit, because I’m buying 12-pound flats. 10.5 quarter-cup servings for every pound. I’m serving a half-cup serving, twice the serving size of the quarter-cup, so I need to make the conversion. My conversion factor is .5. 10.5 servings times .5 equals 5.25 half-cup servings. Right. Okay. So how many flats do I need? Well, 12 pounds times the number of servings I get per pound, 5.25, is 63. So, I get 63 half-cup servings per flat. Now, to serve 1200 students, if I take 1200, divide it by 63, I get 19 flats. I’ll order one extra flat just to be safe. I know how much our kids love those strawberries. Plus, this will cover any waste. There. That looks good.

Clip 3:
Ordering What Students Want

Next, I need to include plums in my order. I want to include at least two varieties so that students are likely to find something they like. Red and purple plums would best complement the colors of foods on this breakfast menu. Oh right. I have here that my manager Joe told me that the kids are preferring purple plums to red, two-to-one. It’s amazing how preferences change each year. So, let’s go for more of the purples. He also said they like them best whole, so let’s see. I’ll go for the 138-count, which is a perfect size for serving whole. Okay, what else? Ah, I’ve got to remember tomatoes and onions. He told me that the new breakfast burrito with the fresh salsa was a big hit with the kids, too.

Clip 4:
Serving Sizes for Ordering

Let’s see. What else do I need to order? Avocado, that’s right, I’ll need that for the new menu item, the breakfast burrito with potato, eggs, and cheese. The potato will count as a quarter-cup serving, and I’ll be serving salsa and avocado on the side, which will each count for an eighth-cup. That gets me to a half-cup altogether, meeting my requirement. On my worksheet, I have the servings per pound already calculated. Let me look that up. Here it is. I’ll get 16.4 eighth-cup servings for every pound of avocados. My avocados come in a two-layer, 25-pound pack, and each case will provide 410 servings per case. So, for 1200 eighth-cup servings I’ll take 1200, and divide it by 410, that gets me 2.9, and since I always round up, that’s 3 cases of avocados. Now I just need to contact my local farmer, place my order, and remind him of the degree of ripeness for these avocados.

Bright Ideas From Others

Using a price point approach to purchasing allows for more variety in your menu.
Nancy Benoit says "In our district, one of the strategies that we utilized was to take a price point on fresh fruits. We added fresh fruits to our breakfast menu, which we weren’t able to do before, and by using a price point we’re able to offer a wider variety of fresh fruits and vegetables to our students, and they are able to be exposed to more things that they may not be exposed to. For example, in the summer, usually one or two weeks we’re able to give the students strawberries. They love those. And this week we have kiwi, which they also like, which kind of surprised me at first. And during the summer we offer quite a few different types of melons, which are very, very popular as well. We have done some data research on our program since we started Fresh Start, and we took baseline data against after we started the program, and the fresh fruit consumption in our district has increased dramatically."

Nutrition education and marketing brought into the cafeteria – by a local farmer.
Nadene Haynes says "One of the fresh promotions we’ve done at breakfast is to bring the farm-to-school program to life in our school district. We’ll invite a local farmer, purchase his local produce. One of the latest items that we purchased is Asian pears. Asian pears are a fun fruit. They’re juicy, as you bite into them they run down your arm, they’re a lot of fun for the kids to try. But the biggest part of the promotion, which was free to us, was to get the farmer on board. And having him on board made 100% of the students try the product. He was great, he described his product, how it was grown, to the students. They have more time at breakfast. Breakfast is a fun time of day to do a promotion, because the students are calm as they come to school, and they enjoy eating something fresh. Particularly something fresh from the farm."

Module 2 - Comprehension Check