Tucson Unified School District wants to bring more local, healthy eats to its schools, so the district is partnering up with the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona and a network of local farmers.
The purpose is to provide students with fresh meals, as well as help out farmers from Tucson and other Southern Arizona lands.
“It’s a great opportunity to help our children get the proper nourishment they need to become the leaders of tomorrow. We’re also glad to expand our local support for Arizona farmers, which will now include small farms within a close proximity to the community we serve,” says Shirley Sokol, TUSD’s director of Food Services, in a statement.
From a TUSD press release:
Regional small farmers grow high-quality, nutrient-dense produce, but they face ongoing challenges to find stable and consistent markets for their products. Through the coordination of planting and harvesting schedules, farmers can work together to build up larger volumes of product and then sell it to institutional buyers, including Tucson Unified School District.
With its existing warehouse storage and refrigerated trucks, the Community Food Bank is well-positioned to manage these efforts and oversee the farmers as they enter into the larger marketplace. Additional grant funding from the USDA will go to coordinating and planning for the future of the partnership.
Michael McDonald, CEO at the Community Food Bank says, “Everyone wins in this partnership. Kids get to enjoy fresh, local produce, and learn about the diverse crops that flourish in our region; local food producers increase sales; and the money stays in Tucson to benefit our local economy. The Food Bank couldn’t be more excited to be part of this.”
Kara Jones, Farmers’ Market Manager at the Community Food Bank, will oversee the partnership. She says, “Tucson Unified School District has proven its commitment to local produce and to our community’s health and economic stability. It’s all very much in line with our vision of a healthy, hunger-free future and we’re glad to have the opportunity to participate in such innovative work.”
This article appears in Aug 20-26, 2015.
What a great idea!
Federal money from the USDA will find the costs to feed local children. When will we ask these parents for anything?
Better income will be derived by attracting quality industry. Why is this city blind to the truth?
At the rate local farms are folding, this is quite timely. If we want to level the playing field between the big boys that don’t play fair and the real people mom&pop operations, to something resembling a ‘free market’, then the only answer is to support it locally. As we all know, the feds are fully in the pockets of the bankers & friends; all you’ll ever see from them is more regulations to keep the little people out of the game.
@Don: you’re a troll, but if you want to see wrath, just tickle me with that one again. You don’t attract “quality industry” when the bankers have offshored it all to China and India. Quit living in the 60’s. America is a hollow shell of it’s former self, and it ain’t the morals of those at the bottom that have put it there: follow the money…it don’t lead anywhere on my block, that’s for sure. Food stamps is all we got left, and your types are all lathered up to take that away too. Hubris. Greed is one of the 7 if I recall…
Food stamps is all we got left…and Don Simpson is a troll?
What happened to all that hope and change?
ok, maybe he’s not a troll…but when every conceivable tw article subject automatically gets turned back to either some version of “the poor are lazy” or “lower taxes and everything will magically get better” (like we haven’t been trying that method long enough yet?), by the same commenters, I’m afraid I run short of vocabulary to describe it. Kneejerk? I mean, is there anything else that might be relevant to the discussion besides Takers and Taxes? Occasionally? I know we all hate TUSD, ok…so now the parents are the problem? I certainly don’t see our local farmers out there being ‘lazy’, and none of them have health insurance or retirement savings for instance, unless their spouse is working. Walking J lost money every single year, and they were the best I know of at what they do. Sleeping Frog is on the rocks, etc.
Oh, and you don’t attract quality industry by defunding our schools, no matter how much you hate the school board, and even if they might deserve some/all of it. Just ask they Raytheon parents what they think of cutting our schools, somehow, I don’t think they are feeling very ‘attracted’ to AZ right now, even if management could care less, and I’ve seen R’s management come out strongly in support of our schools and universities…or did you just want all their employees to be H1B’s???
Raytheon parents are smart enough, and earn enough that they don’t send their kids to public schools. Maybe ask bus drivers.
Many engineers come and go from places other than AZ. H1Vs have been promoted in lieu of Americans once again.