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The farmers’ market salad bar, called “Crunch Lunch,” of the Davis Joint Unified School District is a daily buffet-style array of in-season fruits and vegetables sourced from local farmers. The salad bar is offered daily as an alternative to the regular hot meal. The program was started in 1999 as a way to link the district’s already thriving school garden program. DJUSD works in partnership with the Davis Farm to School Connection in order to implement and maintain the Crunch Lunch salad bar at each school site.
The program got off the ground in 2000 with a $46,235 grant from the USDA Initiative for Future Agriculture and Food Systems. Additional money was received from the California Department of Education’s Nutrition Services Department for development of links between classrooms, school gardens, and food service and from the California Integrated Waste Management Board for vermi-composting, waste diversion, and recycling. Other organizations also received money to pay for for program evaluation, farm tours, and program expansion throughout California. Supplementary funds were sought out and received for ongoing support of the program. Start-up equipment costs totaled nearly $10,000 for three schools. In the first year program costs were $23,609, with the help of grant funding, the salad bar program was able to run at a profit its first two years.
For a detailed evaluation of the program a Crunch Lunch manual is available online here: www.sarep.ucdavis.edu/cdpp/farmtoschool/crunchlunch32003.pdf
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