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| EAT ‘EM UP! Students of the Napa Valley Unified School District learned about and sampled a variety of delicious fruits and vegetables. |
Coming up with a fruit or vegetable for every letter of the alphabet is no easy task. But the staff at Napa Valley Unified School District managed to do it. More than 450 students from Napa Valley elementary schools packed into the Copia Gardens last month for an important special event: An A to Z fruit and vegetable tasting hosted by both Copia and Sodexho, the district's foodservices provider.
"With nutrition and wellness issues moving to the forefront of the national conscious, we were hoping to get across the point that healthful choices can also taste good," says Robert Ruiz, Sodexho food service director for the district.
Four salad bars were set amidst the edible gardens at Copia offering everything from A (apricots) to Z (zucchini). While O (okra) and U (ugli fruit) were the wallflowers, W (watermelon), J (jicama), M (mango), and V (vine ripe tomatoes) stole the spotlight.
"We thought this would be a fun way for students to try a variety of fresh foods they might not otherwise be familiar with," says Ruiz.
Above each salad bar was a colorful sign for the "Kids' Cafe" giving the name of the fruit in English and Spanish along with fruit facts.