Florida Food Day brings locally sourced food to Hillsborough County schools; Plant City’s Wish Farms contributes
Grant Tarrant didn’t waste anytime dipping into his strawberry shortcake.
And Grant, a10-year-old fourth grader at Alafia Elementary School in Valrico, wasn’t too concerned about how it got to the bowl in front of him, just as long as he got to eat it. But once he had a few forkfuls, he remembered one aspect of the strawberries’ origins.
“I know they put a plastic bag around the soil so the strawberries don’t fall out,” said Grant, who quickly went back to eating.
But knowing just one aspect about the agricultural products Grant eats and uses each day was one more reason the first “Florida Food Day “ was started.
March 21, Hillsborough County Public Schools Nutrition Services planned school lunches completely sourced from Florida growers, producers and manufacturers
That Thursday, 190,000 students in 240 kindergarten to 12th grade public schools in Hillsborough County took part in Florida Food Day. That included the 602 kindergarten to fifth-grade pupils, including Grant, at Alafia elementary.
From 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., pupils at Alafia filed into the cafeteria. Instead of the usual county-provided lunch, they were able to select lunch all sourced from Florida farms and farmers. Among the offerings were: chicken empanadas from Sunsof Corp., Hialeah; strawberries from Wish Farms, Plant City; Mexican street corn from R.C. Hatton Farms, Pahokee; and milk from M&B Products, TempleTerrace.
Among those attending the Florida Food Day at Alafia elementary was Charlie Hogan, Hatton food service sales director, a representative from M&B Products and Tyler Pierson, farm manager at Wish Farms.
Also in attendance at each of the two Florida Food Day sessions in addition to Alafia school staff were Avery Rodriguez, Florida Health, certified health education specialist with Florida Health Hillsborough County and Jenna Kaczmarski, project director of Locally Grown, which initiated the Farm to Schools program.
Kaczmarski said she approached Shani Hall, Hillsborough County Schools Director of Nutrition Service, about adding more fruits and vegetables to school lunches from Florida farm and that was the impetus for Florida Food Day.
“I wanted to help schools be able to bring more products in from Florida farms. It was a passion project for me,” said Kaczmarski.
That project spread to all Hillsborough County public schools, including Alafia.
On the Alafia cafeteria stage, Pierson, who’s been farm manger at Wish Farms for eight years, said the farm supplied about 75 flats of fresh strawberries for Florida Farm Day’s two lunches at Alafia. He said it was part of the company’s community-based outreach and education efforts.
“We’re always helping as we can around the county. We hope the students will be able to eat more locally grown foods, learn about agriculture and learn it’s not just about reaching into a cooler and thinking that’s where the food comes from,” he said.
That’s also a goal for Hillsborough County schools, said Hall. She said strawberries and corn were featured for 2024 due to being in season. The district also wanted to make sure it had enough servings for all of the sites on the food day.
“We wanted to teach them the importance of locally grown foods available to them. We want them to understand we’re tying to get the healthiest and tastiest food to them with as little time between harvest to plate s possible,” she said.
The school district said Florida Food Day was also an effort by its Farm to School Coalition in an effort to bring more locally sourced food to area schools.
