Epoch Times - Farm to School 🥗
Aired: 2023-10-06
Duration: 00:49

[00:00:00]  I'd ask them, how much local product are you serving our kids?
[00:00:02]  Well, none.
[00:00:03]  We don't serve them any.
[00:00:04]  I said, well, why not?
[00:00:05]  They said, well, we don't know any farmers.
[00:00:07]  We don't have time to go to the farmer's market.
[00:00:09]  It's better just to order it from Benny, Keith, or Cisco's.
[00:00:11]  It's flash frozen.
[00:00:12]  We thaw it out and put it on the plastic tray.
[00:00:16]  That's why you have healthy trash cans instead of healthy kids.
[00:00:19]  Long story short, I set up a system where we hook up the farmers with the schools and make that a very easy link.
[00:00:28]  Last year, for our schools, we're serving zero local products.
[00:00:32]  They bought $65 million worth of locally grown products and fed our kids.
[00:00:36]  No added salt, no preservatives, no dyes, never flash frozen, cooked from scratch fresh.
[00:00:41]  And guess what happened to it?
[00:00:42]  They ate it.
[00:00:43]  It didn't go in the trash can.
[00:00:44]  So we're very proud of that program.
[00:00:46]  We're kind of the model for the rest of the United States.