FUESD serves fresh, California-sourced school meals

FALLBROOK – Something delicious is being served up at schools in the Fallbrook Union Elementary School District. Since 2015, FUESD has been collaborating with the statewide California Thursdays program to serve healthy, freshly prepared meals featuring California-grown ingredients.

FUESD joined the Center for Ecoliteracy’s California Thursdays Network to source ingredients from California farmers, ranchers and producers.

To celebrate joining the California Thursdays Network, FUESD prepared locally pastured, roasted lemon herb chicken drumsticks from Pasturebird Poultry of Warner Springs in San Diego County, a whole grain dinner roll from local S&S bakery, freshly sliced persimmons and cherry tomatoes grown in Redlands at Old Grove Orange and aquaponic-grown romaine lettuce from local grower De Luz Aquaponics for their roughly 5,000 students.

“California Thursdays is a great first step in celebrating all that California agriculture has to offer,” California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross said. “It brings awareness to the fresh, wholesome, and seasonally appropriate bounty of our great state. If we feed our children good healthy food, and if we connect them back to the places, the people and the practices that reveal where our food comes from, I think we're going to have great decision-makers in our future.”

California public schools serve over 1 billion meals each year; the California Thursdays Network represents 33 percent of that total.

The program’s organizer, the Center for Ecoliteracy, saw a 13 percent increase in school lunch participation on days featuring California Thursdays’ freshly prepared meals made with local ingredients.

Building on student and staff support, what began with a single school district in 2013, evolved into a program with 15 school districts in October 2014 and has now expanded to 89 districts in 33 counties statewide.

Collectively, the California Thursdays Network represents 3,195 schools, with an enrollment of over 2 million students, and thousands of staff who serve over 334 million meals a year. Every year, more and more of those millions of meals feature California-grown food. Each district tailors their menu options to their students’ preferences, their school site capacities and the availability of fresh ingredients.

Director of Child Nutrition Services Carissa Iwamoto said, “At FUESD, fresh produce is part of our heritage as an agricultural community. This year, the focus is on sustainable products that minimize harm to our planet. Local farmer, Pasturebird, has roots that resonate with this mission. Their process of raising chickens outside and rotating birds to fresh pasture every day builds soil health, promotes high animal welfare, eliminates the need for antibiotics and drugs, and bolsters a rural community with ag jobs here in San Diego County.”

For more information about the California Thursdays program and to see the interactive state map of the network, visit http://www.californiafoodforcaliforniakids.org/network.

Submitted by FUESD Child Nutrition Services.