ANAHEIM, Calif. — Students at Western High School will be able to enjoy a more healthful lunch at school each day thanks to the Fresh Produce & Floral Council.
Tom BurfieldStudents help themselves to salad at the salad bar donated to Western High School, Anaheim, Calif., by the La Mirada, Calif.-based Fresh Produce & Floral Council on Sept. 26.
Representatives of the La Mirada, Calif.-based council were on hand Sept. 26 to help dedicate a salad bar that the organization donated to the school in conjunction with the United Fresh Produce Association’s Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools program.
“School salad bars can play a big role in developing lifelong healthy eating habits,” FPFC chairman Rick Cruz said during a dedication program. Cruz is manager of division operations for produce at the Santa Fe Springs, Calif., location of Pleasanton, Calif.-based Vons/Safeway supermarkets.
“We’re dedicated to making sure our students have healthy choices and learn about the importance of agriculture as well as the importance of food in their healthy life,” said Daniel Lunt, Western High’s principal.
The salad bar could be the first of several that the council donates.
At first, FPFC set out to donate two salad bars — one in Southern California and another in the northern part of the state, said Marty Craner, the council’s Outreach Task Force chairwoman and owner and president of B&C Fresh Sales, Orange, Calif.
But she believes the board of directors wants to expand the program.
Tom BurfieldRick Cruz, chairman of the Fresh Produce & Floral Council; Marty Craner, chairwoman of the council’s Outreach Task Force; and Daniel Lunt (rear), principal of Western High School, Anaheim, Calif., dedicate the salad bar the council donated Sept. 26. “I suspect this is just a springboard,” she said.
Funding for the program comes from discretionary funds that the council uses to “give back to the community and to our industry,” Craner said.
Although the council chose the general area in which the salad bar would be placed, United Fresh chose Western High.
The students may not be the only ones to gain from the program, Craner said. The industry might benefit, as well, as the students turn into the consumers of tomorrow.
“The more they eat, the more we get to sell them,” she said.
The FPFC’s Northern California salad bar dedication is scheduled for Oct. 17 at Earl Warren Elementary School in Sacramento.
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