Donations to benefit 5,500 local students
Students and officials from Oak Middle School in Los Alamitos, California, enjoying their new salad bar.
LOS ALAMITOS, CA (April 2016) – Frieda’s Specialty Produce, through the United Fresh Start Foundation, donated three salad bars to Los Alamitos Unified School District schools in Los Alamitos, California, where the company is headquartered.
“We’re so pleased to be able to support salad bars for schools in our local community, encouraging healthy choices for children in our hometown,” said Karen Caplan, president and CEO of Frieda’s. “These donations are especially meaningful as my sister Jackie [Caplan Wiggins, vice president and COO] and I both attended Los Alamitos schools.” The schools receiving salad bars from the Frieda’s donation include Oak Middle School, McAuliffe Middle School, and Los Alamitos High School.
At the start of the school year, the Los Alamitos School District had salad bars in all of its schools, however the ones at the middle and high schools were old and in disrepair. The Frieda’s donation is providing new salad bars for the district’s middle and high schools, ensuring these students can continue to have access to fresh produce choices every day.
According to Celeste Calubaquib, director of food services for the school district, “We greatly appreciate this generous donation from Frieda’s and look forward to stocking our new salad bars with a variety of healthy, fresh produce choices each day. The salad bar helps encourage our students to select fruits and veggies. Thank you, Frieda’s!”
The salad bar donations were coordinated with the United Fresh Start Foundation, supporting the national “Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools” initiative. To date, salad bars have been donated to more than 4,600 schools nationwide, benefiting nearly 3 million children every school day. This includes 1,060 salad bars for California schools, the most of any state.
Research and experience in schools across the country demonstrate that children significantly increase their fruit and vegetable consumption when given a variety of choices from a school salad bar. When offered multiple fruit and vegetable choices, children respond by incorporating greater variety and increasing their overall consumption. Salad bars empower students to make their own healthy choices and create excitement about trying new fruits and vegetables, ultimately increasing children’s daily consumption.
About Frieda’s Inc.
Frieda’s Specialty Produce celebrates a 54-year legacy of inspiring new food experiences for friends, family, and food lovers everywhere. Credited with introducing more than 200 specialty fruits and vegetables to U.S. supermarkets, Frieda’s has helped launch unique items like kiwi fruits, Stokes Purple® sweet potatoes, habanero peppers, Sunchokes®, and organic finger limes. Founded in 1962 by produce industry icon Dr. Frieda Rapoport Caplan, subject of the 2015 documentary “Fear No Fruit,” the family company is now owned and operated by Frieda’s daughters, Karen Caplan and Jackie Caplan Wiggins, in Orange County, California. Find Frieda’s on Facebook, @FriedasProduce, and Friedas.com. Inspire. Taste. Love.
About Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools
Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools is a public health campaign to increase salad bars in schools across the country so that every child has the choice of healthy fruits and vegetables every day at school. Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools supports First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” initiative to end childhood obesity in a generation. Founding partners are the United Fresh Start Foundation, National Fruit and Vegetable Alliance, Chef Ann Foundation, and Whole Foods Market.
About the United Fresh Start Foundation
The United Fresh Start Foundation is focused exclusively on increasing children’s access to fresh fruits and vegetables, and inspiring the next generation to “choose fresh” whenever and wherever they are eating their next snack or meal. Working with the produce industry, local nonprofits, healthcare organizations, allied businesses, and others, the United Fresh Start Foundation is committed to helping today’s youth achieve the public health goal of making half their plate fruits and vegetables in order to live longer, healthier lives. Join our movement to ensure kids everywhere are “Growing Up Fresh!”