THE WOODLANDS, Texas — The Houston Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association is a few more salad bars closer to achieving its goal of donating 20 to the Houston Independent School District through the United Fresh Produce Association Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools program.
The group had its Second Annual HFFVA Charity Golf Tournament April 19. The event drew about 60 golfers to the Panther Trail Golf Course. Deputy Agriculture Commissioner Drew DeBerry and Brian Giles, senior food services administrator for the school district, addressed the regular meeting of the HFFVA before the tournament.
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Brian Giles, senior director of food services for the Houston Independent School District, said each salad bar donated to the school affects at least 300 children and as many as 3,000.
Giles said student response to the three salad bars donated last year has been unexpected.
“My concern going into it was that you’ve got a kid who’s never seen broccoli or kale or anything of the sort, what are they going to think of a salad bar, and by the way they’ve never seen a salad bar, either,” Giles said. “My concern was that we were really going to have to work hard with these kids. We’ve actually had the opposite problem. We’ve had kids hoarding produce. I’ve seen kids stuffing it in their backpacks to take home. This is what it means to them.”
Craig Slate, director of retail sales for Houston-based IFCO and tournament co-organizer, said the HFFVA hopefully raised enough money to donate four more salad bars to schools this year.
“We originally pledged 20, and we’d like to get those in to schools as soon as possible,” he said.
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