{"id":24932,"date":"2022-09-16T12:23:04","date_gmt":"2022-09-16T19:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/plantingseedsblog.cdfa.ca.gov\/wordpress\/?p=24932"},"modified":"2022-09-16T12:23:04","modified_gmt":"2022-09-16T19:23:04","slug":"sacramento-schools-are-giving-kids-farm-fresh-meals-and-california-is-following-the-lead-from-the-sacramento-bee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/plantingseedsblog.cdfa.ca.gov\/wordpress\/index.php\/2022\/09\/16\/sacramento-schools-are-giving-kids-farm-fresh-meals-and-california-is-following-the-lead-from-the-sacramento-bee\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacramento schools are giving kids farm-fresh meals &#8211; and California is following the lead &#8211; from the Sacramento Bee"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>By Benjy Egel<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-medium is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/plantingseedsblog.cdfa.ca.gov\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/SAC_071820_JP_ThreeSistersFarm08_1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/plantingseedsblog.cdfa.ca.gov\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/SAC_071820_JP_ThreeSistersFarm08_1-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-24933\" width=\"568\" height=\"379\" srcset=\"https:\/\/plantingseedsblog.cdfa.ca.gov\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/SAC_071820_JP_ThreeSistersFarm08_1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/plantingseedsblog.cdfa.ca.gov\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/SAC_071820_JP_ThreeSistersFarm08_1-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/plantingseedsblog.cdfa.ca.gov\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/SAC_071820_JP_ThreeSistersFarm08_1-768x511.jpg 768w, https:\/\/plantingseedsblog.cdfa.ca.gov\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/SAC_071820_JP_ThreeSistersFarm08_1.jpg 1140w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 568px) 100vw, 568px\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Three Sisters Farm founder Alfred Melbourne examines an ear of corn on one of his four urban farms in West Sacramento in 2020. His produce is part of the \u201cfarm-to-school\u201d movement making its way through the Sacramento region and California. Jason Pierce\/Sacramento Bee file<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Alfred Melbourne tromped through Three Sisters Gardens\u2019 half-acre urban farm on a recent Friday morning dressed in black Ray-Ban sunglasses, cut-off shorts and a black tank top showing off his lean build and many tribal tattoos. Hummingbirds flitted through bean plants in West Sacramento\u2019s Broderick neighborhood, next to rows of tomatoes and eggplants poking out from tangled vines. There were bell and serrano peppers, purple and Thai basil, two types of melons and patches of cilantro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some of that produce, planted and harvested by volunteers as young as 11, will end up on West Sacramento school lunch trays. It\u2019s part of the \u201cfarm-to-school\u201d movement making its way through the Sacramento region and California as a whole, one Melbourne wants to see grow. \u201cWe want the kids to see where their food comes from. We want them to actually connect with the land,\u201d said Melbourne, a Hunkpapa Lakota tribe member. \u201cBeing native, we know that the land, the mother, has healing properties, so just making contact and seeing (how) a handful of seeds can turn into a whole field of food growing \u2026 we want them to be a part of that magic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As downtown Sacramento\u2019s annual Farm-to-Fork Festival draws approximately 150,000 visitors throughout September, the city\u2019s children finally seem to be inching toward healthier meals at school. The days of Sysco chicken patties and freezer-burned raw broccoli could slowly be on the way out thanks to a new state-of-the art central kitchen in Sacramento, shifting state politics and growing relationships with local farmers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Longtime farm-to-school proponents received a boost from California\u2019s first couple, particularly First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who\u2019s made the movement one of her priority issues. After years of slow progress, millions of dollars are flowing toward locally sourced school lunches, helping offset some of the costs associated with higher-quality food. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 2022-23 state budget included $60 million in farm-to-school grants, up from $8.5 million in the inaugural program two years ago and well beyond the $12 million the USDA doled out nationwide last year. Gov. Gavin Newsom also approved $600 million in school kitchen upgrades, visible in the new combination ovens coming to every campus in the Sacramento City Unified School District. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI think we have an opportunity to heal our state and our country through our emphasis on farm-to-school,\u201d Siebel Newsom said. \u201cThere\u2019s only an upside if we do this right.\u201d BIG INVESTMENTS The United States was just starting to push its way out of the Great Recession in November 2012 when Sacramento voters overwhelmingly approved a $414 million bond package centered on the city\u2019s schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Measure R, as the smaller of the bond package\u2019s two elements was known, included $68 million to fix up playgrounds, improve school safety and fund construction of a central kitchen to feed the district\u2019s children. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ten years later, Sacramento City Unified has transformed a former dumping ground for unneeded desks and books into a 50,000-square foot industrial kitchen in Tahoe Park. It has another 50,000 square feet of warehouse storage, plus parking and gas for a fleet of delivery trucks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Central Kitchen produced daily meals for 4,000 students this summer. That\u2019s a gargantuan feat in its own right, but the end goal is much larger: feeding all 43,000 Sacramento City Unified students freshly prepared free meals from The Central Kitchen in the next three to five years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That means giant sous-vide cookers preparing tender chicken breasts and thighs to be sliced for soups, salads and enchiladas. Chef Tom Lucero, formerly the corporate executive chef over Sienna Restaurant and Land Ocean American Grill, will eventually oversee more than 30 cooks processing produce and baking bread, muffins and pizza dough. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A roving food truck will also make use of those fresh ingredients, serving junior high students breakfast 45 minutes before class begins. The district wants to make school meals appealing enough \u2014 cool enough, really \u2014 that kids will seek them out, said Sacramento City Unified Executive Director of Nutrition Services Diana Flores. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cA lot of students do not even participate in school meals because they don\u2019t either like the taste, they don\u2019t like the stigma associated with eating school meals or they\u2019re frankly just too busy socializing at lunchtime,\u201d Flores said. \u201cWe want to have a meal that\u2019s so great that we\u2019ll bring them in to eat, so they do better in the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Central Kitchen now sources from more than 45 area growers, purchasing directly when possible to cut out distributors\u2019 costs. It buys out Rancho Cordova-based Soil Born Farms\u2019 entire lettuce crop, purchases Perry &amp; Sons watermelons from Manteca and gets tomatoes, squash and cucumbers from Root 64\u2019s one-acre farm just down the street in Tahoe Park. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rice comes from SunWest Foods in Yuba City, while Sierra Sun Fruit Marketing supplies peaches from outside Fresno and Miller Citrus Grove hooks the district up with Penryn mandarins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Statewide farm-to-school efforts began building since the mid-2000s, but typically lacked funding, district Assistant Director of Nutrition Services Kelsey Nederveld said. Sacramento voters helped remedy that with Measure R in 2012, and the state has prioritized it as of late. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>New this year as well: free breakfast and lunch for all California public school students regardless of family income, thanks to a budget bill Newsom signed into law in July 2021. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A bounty of studies indicate students\u2019 diets are a major factor in their academic performance. Nourish the stomach, nourish the mind, Siebel Newsom said \u2014 with the climate-friendly appeal of local sourcing a cherry on top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe have this huge opportunity in front of us to benefit not just children\u2019s health and well-being and academic prowess, but also climate change by reducing transportation, reducing emissions through a circular economy,\u201d Siebel Newsom said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>GROWN BY KIDS, EATEN BY KIDS <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Melbourne\u2019s story has become famous in local farm-to-fork circles. After serving 18 years in prison, he turned to gardening as a form of therapy. With support from the West Sacramento Urban Farm program, he eventually founded the nonprofit Three Sisters Gardens on the corner of 5th and C streets in 2018. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Three Sisters has since expanded to four urban farms, including one across the street from Elkhorn Village Elementary School, all with a holistic approach meant to benefit the earth and community. Melbourne eventually wants 50 farms in West Sacramento, part of a \u201cland back\u201d approach he says Native Americans need to flourish. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe want to give them a sustainable food system in our own community using the land that we have available to us,\u201d Melbourne said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Three Sisters donates 40% of what it grows to local food banks or community members, and sells much of the rest at area farmers markets. The Natomas Unified School District was its only wholesale client up until the beginning of summer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But Natomas isn\u2019t as close as Melbourne would like, despite being just a 15-minute drive from the main farm. He\u2019s ended that contract and beginning another one with Washington School District in West Sacramento, hoping to keep his produce as close to his historically-underserved community as possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re working in the communities where the help is needed the most,\u201d Melbourne said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to show people how to grow their own food at the same time as we\u2019re giving food to the community \u2026 showing them how to fish as opposed to just giving them a fish.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>This story continues: Read more at: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/article264624686.html#storylink=cpy\">https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/article264624686.html#storylink=cpy<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Benjy Egel Alfred Melbourne tromped through Three Sisters Gardens\u2019 half-acre urban farm on a recent Friday morning dressed in black Ray-Ban sunglasses, cut-off shorts and a black tank top showing off his lean build and many tribal tattoos. Hummingbirds &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/plantingseedsblog.cdfa.ca.gov\/wordpress\/index.php\/2022\/09\/16\/sacramento-schools-are-giving-kids-farm-fresh-meals-and-california-is-following-the-lead-from-the-sacramento-bee\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agricultural-education","category-food-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\r\n<title>Sacramento schools are giving kids farm-fresh meals - and California is following the lead - from the Sacramento Bee - CDFA&#039;s Planting Seeds Blog<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/plantingseedsblog.cdfa.ca.gov\/wordpress\/index.php\/2022\/09\/16\/sacramento-schools-are-giving-kids-farm-fresh-meals-and-california-is-following-the-lead-from-the-sacramento-bee\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sacramento schools are giving kids farm-fresh meals - and California is following the lead - from the Sacramento Bee - CDFA&#039;s Planting Seeds Blog\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Benjy Egel Alfred Melbourne tromped through Three Sisters Gardens\u2019 half-acre urban farm on a recent Friday morning dressed in black Ray-Ban sunglasses, cut-off shorts and a black tank top showing off his lean build and many tribal tattoos. 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