Success is often born from simplicity and in the fresh produce industry, more often than not, doing good is accelerated in groups. What initially began as simply “a way for some fresh produce industry folks to get down to Fresh Summit in Anaheim” (a great idea from California Giant Berry Farms’ Anthony Gallino), evolved into a bike ride down the California coast with 41 riders and 30 sponsors that raised almost $135,000 for the Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools campaign.

For those who weren’t along for this year’s ride, you can experience the next best thing to participating yourself by watching the inspirational 2014 Tour de Fresh video below.

One of the many highlights in the video is a donation of a salad bar to the Conejo Valley Unified School District in Thousand Oaks, CA, by fellow rider and Tour de Fresh sponsor, Tom Deardorff II of Deardorff Family Farms. Tom then visited Sequoia Middle School, where the salad bar was placed, on the first day the salad bar was offered to students. Tom detailed his experience for us below, which serves as an amazing reminder that the salad bar program will continue to drive trial and demand for our industry’s fresh products.

“Today, the salad bar we donated on Wednesday during the Tour de Fresh stop in Oxnard was opened at Sequoia Middle School in Newbury Park, California.  I attended the kid’s lunch to see what would happen.  I was AMAZED.  

There are almost 1,000 kids at the school (grades 6-8).   There are four lines into the cafeteria.  Two lines would take the kids past the salad bar and 2 lines would by-pass the salad bar and go straight to the chocolate milk and other processed foods. The lunch staff stood outside to direct the kids on what items were available via which lines.

Even with chocolate milk waiting, kids began to back up one behind the other in the two lines going TO THE SALAD BAR.  It was awesome!  They were smiling and joking and asking if they could use the big trays instead of the small trays.  They went for it hard and fast and kept coming.  I could hear the staff saying, “we need more salad”, “we need more kiwi”.  Kids were chomping on carrots and loving every bite.  In the end, it was probably a 65/35 split (with 65% of the kids choosing to go through the salad bar).  What an amazing affirmation that what we did this week was well worth the effort.”

– Tom Deardorff II of Deardorff Family Farms

Imagining that narrative playing out in 47+ other schools across the country gives me more than a year’s worth of warm and fuzzies. The products that our industry grows and the efforts, like the salad bar campaign, that we commit to truly do make a difference to the over 12 million US children who are classified as obese; which is a gratifying reminder of the good that our industry does on a daily basis.

Details of the 2015 Tour de Fresh, already in the planning stages, will be announced soon. We can’t wait for the camaraderie and charity from this year’s event to replicate and grow as this passion project enters its second year. Happy trails!