Harvest of the Month: Locally grown produce offered to Hillsborough County students

TAMPA, Fla. - The Hillsborough County school district kicked off its Harvest of the Month on Thursday, featuring Florida-grown sweet corn in many of the district's schools.

Different Florida-grown produce items will be highlighted in school lunchrooms during Harvest of the Month. It's a twist on the district's Farm to School program, which kicked off last year. 

That program is a partnership with the nonprofit Locally Grown and is focused on bringing local produce into schools across the county.

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"We have made it a part of our mission statement and our department to work with farmers, try to find a way to get this produce in to our students so that they have the opportunity to learn about food, get better food, local food, less urban footprint on the food," explained Shani Hall, General Manager of Hillsborough Schools' Student Nutrition Services.

The first item featured was sweet corn from R.C. Hatton Farms, located in Pahokee, FL.

Students are getting fresh produce as part of their lunches.

"[The program] helps educate the kids on how lucky they are to live in a state where it's literally their backyard," said Charlie Hogan, Food Service Sales Director for R.C. Hatton Farms. "These kids show up to school on Wednesday and can eat something that was harvested on Monday, locally. You just you can't do any better than that."

The district services more than 30 million school meals a year and the school system leaders said these farm to school initiatives make an impactful difference on Florida’s kids and Florida’s farmers.

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It also helps students taking part in the free and reduced lunch program; for some of them, schools meals are the only meals they get.

"We have about 150,000 kids who have access to free meals through that program," said Arianne Corbett, the nutritionist for the district. "We want to make sure those meals are the healthiest meals possible because we have made that commitment to kids to be their source of nutrition and food and make sure that they get the best possible food."

Last year, the district devoted nearly $20 million of its $90 million school meal budget to buying locally-produced and manufactured foods.