{"id":1431,"date":"2019-06-13T13:48:10","date_gmt":"2019-06-13T21:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/?p=1431"},"modified":"2019-06-25T12:05:22","modified_gmt":"2019-06-25T20:05:22","slug":"specialty-crop-block-grant-school-success-story-natomas-unified-school-district","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/?p=1431","title":{"rendered":"Specialty Crop Block Grant School Success Story — Natomas Unified School District"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“Yes, we serve food, but we’re also an educational setting. We take time to teach kids about food,” – Vince Caguin, Director of Nutrition Services and Warehousing for the Natomas Unified School District<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Natomas Unified School District<\/a>\n(NUSD) is a mid-size school district located north of downtown Sacramento. Named\nas the second most diverse school district in the nation in a 2016 New York\nTimes study, NUSD serves 15,000 students across 20 school sites, of whom\napproximately 51% qualify for free and reduced-price meals. Declared \u201cAmerica\u2019s\nFarm to Fork Capital\u201d by former Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, the Sacramento\nregion has a rich agricultural heritage and an abundance of locally grown specialty\ncrops. Vince Caguin, Director of Nutrition Services and Warehousing for NUSD,\nembraces the region\u2019s farm to fork identity and is working to bring this\nabundance of local fruits and vegetables to NUSD students through farm to\nschool efforts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caguin and his staff in the NUSD Nutrition Services\nDepartment have worked diligently to bring local specialty crops into their\ncafeterias. By cultivating relationships with local farmers including Fiery Ginger Farm<\/a>,\nVierra Farms<\/a>,\nCloverleaf\nFarm<\/a> and Wild River<\/a>, just to name a few,\nNUSD is now able to source 35% of its procurement locally. These farmer\nrelationships enable NUSD to feature seasonal produce like peaches, blackberries,\ncitrus and kiwi at the peak of freshness. Jennifer Orosco, Supervisor of\nNutrition Services and Warehousing, said NUSD has expanded to include salad\nbars at all school sites and, as a result, has seen an increase in the amount\nof fruits and vegetables that are being consumed by the students. Orosco said\nthis year marks the first time NUSD has been able to source 100% of the lettuce\nfor its salad bars from a local grower. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to supporting local procurement and specialty\ncrops in school meals, Caguin and his staff are working to support experiential\nlearning and nutrition education for NUSD students. NUSD partners with local\nfarmers to participate in assemblies at schools, as well as to take students on\nfarm tour field trips so they can see firsthand how specialty crops are grown.\nIn addition, two NUSD sites have school gardens, one of which is incorporating the\ngarden into the classroom curriculum and hosting monthly cooking demonstrations\nfor families. To celebrate National\nFarm to School Month<\/a> in October, NUSD hosts free farmers markets for\nstudents and parents, with the help of donated produce and a USDA farm to\nschool implementation grant. NUSD also participates in programs like California\nThursdays<\/a> in partnership with the Center for Ecoliteracy<\/a>, and the California\nCrunch<\/a> in partnership with the Community Alliance with Family Farmers<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By supporting local procurement, nutrition education and\nexperiential learning, NUSD is seeing positive impacts for both students and\nthe district as a whole. Caguin has observed student willingness to try new\nthings increase over the seven years he\u2019s been with the district. Although it\ntakes a few tries, the students become accustomed to and begin to enjoy trying\nnew things. Caguin said NUSD\u2019s meal participation increased from 1.1 million\nmeals in the 2012-13 school year to 1.8 million meals in 2017-18, outpacing\ndistrict growth. Seven years ago, NUSD was in a deficit; its operating budget has\nsince increased from around $2.5 million to $5.5 million, which Caguin said is\ndue in large part to increased meal participation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked what advice he has for other districts, Caguin said\nhe believes the quality of meal programs has a direct relationship with participation\nand revenue. Caguin also notes that an important part of NUSD\u2019s success has\nbeen ensuring support for his staff, including farm tours and other professional\ndevelopment activities. This staff support has helped reinforce Caguin\u2019s\nmission to establish a culture of serving good food. The additional time spent\nbuilding relationships with local farmers, serving 17 items on salad bars,\nroasting carrots and broccoli, and countless other activities has been well\nworth it, Caguin said, because of the benefits for students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To see more of what NUSD is serving up, follow them on\nInstagram at @nusdfood<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stay tuned for more specialty crop school success stories in\nthe coming weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– CDFA Farm to Fork Staff<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\narticle is part of a series highlighting organizations that are successfully\npromoting specialty crops in schools. Made possible by Specialty Crop Block\nGrant funding, these success stories aim to inspire similar efforts, ultimately\nincreasing student access to, knowledge of, and demand for California specialty\ncrops.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Yes, we serve food, but we’re also an educational setting. We take time to teach kids about food,” – Vince Caguin, Director of Nutrition Services and Warehousing for the Natomas Unified School District Natomas Unified School District (NUSD) is a mid-size school district located north of downtown Sacramento. Named as the second most diverse school […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ca-farm-to-fork-website"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4z2wv-n5","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1431"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1433,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1431\/revisions\/1433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/TalesFromTheField\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}