Food Matters Sponsors
Farm-to-School Produce Show

In the fall of 2002, Food Matters brought together 18 School Food Service Directors and staff, 7 farmers, and various other agency representatives and interested persons to talk with each other about how to get fresh local food into the school cafeterias. There were farmers from Quetzal Farm, Tierra Vegetables, Stony Farm, Nana Mae Farm, Terra Fresh, Pepe Farm, and Straus Family Creamery showcasing their peppers, cucumbers, melons, chiles, vegetables, apples, pears, peaches, tomatoes, yogurt smoothies and more.

This gathering led to "fruitful" discussions about creating a direct way to link food service directors to local available produce; the need for salad prep equipment; ideas to interest kids in healthy snacks, such as baskets of free fresh fruit in snack bars; where to find funding for farm to school activities and projects; and which schools need summer produce and which farms can supply them.

For the past year Food Matters in Sonoma County has been working to bring these ideas to fruition in our schools keeping our children healthy while supporting local farmers.