Feds Seek to Replicate Our Success

While First Lady Obama did not make an appearance at Emerson as the children had hoped, Washington D.C. did send a high-ranking official, USDA Under Secretary of Agriculture Kevin Concannon, on Friday.

For students, the highlight of the Farmer's Market Salad Bar Anniversary Celebration occurred when USDA officials toured the Eastside Community Garden, sampling strawberries and listening to students expalin the benefits of having a salad bar and a school garden.

The Green Team students toured the officials around the garden, telling them first-hand how they enjoy planting, caring for, weeding, harvesting and especially eating fruits and vegetables.

Rodney K. Taylor, founder of the salad bar concept in Riverside received several awards during the ceremony including the Healthcare Champion Award from U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer.

Several news agencies reported on the salad bar anniversary event, including the Press Enterprise, Reuters, and KABC-TV.

Throughout the day, students and parents inquired about whether First Lady Obama would make a surprise visit, in response to the students' written invitation earlier in the month. First Lady Obama toured a community farm in San Diego on Thursday, as part of her Let's Move! campaign, but at the last moment sent word that she was unable to attend the event at Emerson on Friday.

In the 55 year history of Emerson Elementary School, Concannon is the highest ranking official to visit the school and interact with its students. It was a tremendous honor for us as a school to be able to host the Farmer's Market Salad Bar celebration, and to be able to show off our efforts to connect health, nutrition, science and physical activity in the Eastside Communiuty Garden, especially to such a broad audience.

It was reported that USDA officials hope to replicate the Farmers Market Salad Bar program as well as school gardening projects such as those at Emerson.

Salad Bar Anniversary on Friday

RUSD Farmers’ Market Salad Bar program to be celebrated at April 16 anniversary event
The fifth anniversary of the nationally-recognized Farmers’ Market Salad Bar program will be celebrated at 9:30 AM Friday, April 16 at Emerson Elementary School. The event will feature a ceremony, garden tours and a fresh salad bar lunch to celebrate this unique program, which brings locally-grown produce to 29 elementary schools across the Riverside Unified School District. This program, one of only two in Southern California, is the largest of its kind in the nation.Since it began, more than 1.3 million salad bar meals have been served. In 2008-09, 565,134 elementary school salad bar lunches were served and the district has served 412,797 meals so far this year. Numerous local, state and federal dignitaries are slated to attend the event, including Kevin Concannon, United States Agriculture Department Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services.“We are excited to celebrate this milestone with the entire community,” noted Rodney Taylor, Director of Nutrition Services for the Riverside Unified School District. “Five years ago, we began an incredibly ambitious project to bring fresh produce to as many students as possible. The Farmer’s Market Salad Bar program has allowed us to do just that. Not only do students enjoy fresh fruits and vegetables from local farms, but they also get to grow their own produce, which is incredibly empowering to children as they learn to make healthier choices that they hopefully will carry with them throughout their lives.”The Riverside Unified School District Farmers’ Market Salad Bar program is based on a similar program begun in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. That program also was started by Taylor, working in conjunction with Occidental College. Occidental College Professor Robert Gottlieb, Urban and Environmental Policy Institute Director, wrote the grant that funded the pilot program in Riverside Unified School District.The RUSD salad bar program has drawn significant national attention since it began and has been featured in countless books, magazines and documentaries and has won numerous awards. Most recently, the RUSD salad bar program was the recipient of United States Senator Barbara Boxer’s Health Care Champion Award.

PTA Makes Cafeteria Quad Blossom!

Many thanks to the Emerson PTA for providing the funding for the renovation of the quad in between the cafeteria and the lunch court!

For the past few years, the areas surrounding the quad have received a few updates, but the quad never qualified to receive any updates itself. Grass wouldn't grow because the antiquated irrigation. The area was a dusty short cut from the lunch court to the next hallway. Drainage was poor and had recently flooded in the winter storms.

The PTA Board approved the expenditure of funds to update the area with both hardscaping (concrete) and landscaping.

The beautiful red flowering dicots are drought tolerant and will grow into a large flowering bed of foliage and flowers.