Ventura Report

The Juanamaria PTA got $70,000 from tobacco lawsuit settlement money and now plans to expand the Farm-to-School project into two more district schools. The money must be spent by February 2002 however, meaning the district must quickly hire a coordinator. Jim Churchill is attending a meeting with Farm-to-School volunteers, the PTA, the district nurse, and the food service director in order to create the position.

We held a Lighthouse meeting in November that included the school food service director, the food service director's distributor and eight farmers. The distributor wants to source locally. Jim Churchill compiled a list of farmers and products. Currently the distributor is sourcing fruit only.

Sunkist stopped being responsive to local Valencia growers. The Valencia Task-force is talking with other people through Larry Yee (UCCE). Anthony Zolezzi is interested in putting together a family farm brand that would require creating standards and a business plan. The project would get growers to juice their own oranges and sell as Ventura County Family Farm brand. This would require the growers to sign on, put up money and take risks. They might do it because they are so desperate.

Anyone interested in participating in CAFF's work on the South Coast should contact South Coast regional coordinator Jim Churchill at 805-646-4212 or jrchurchill@earthlink.net.