HomeEducationACPS Food & Nutrition Department works with local business to offer healthy snacks for students

ACPS Food & Nutrition Department works with local business to offer healthy snacks for students

October 12, 2023

Press release from Alachua County Public Schools

ALACHUA COUNTY, Fla. – From October 2 through October 27, students at Alachua County elementary schools that participate in the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP) are each scheduled to receive a fruit bouquet from Edible Arrangements. FFVP is provided by the district’s Food & Nutrition Services Department and funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  

Through FFVP, students at 19 local schools are served fresh fruit and vegetable snacks daily. The offerings often include items the students have rarely, if ever, tried before. The program also provides educational information about the snacks, including nutrition information, geography, history, and fun facts. The goal is to encourage students to try different, healthier food options.

As part of the program, the district’s Food & Nutrition Department purchased individual fruit bouquets from Edible Arrangements for students at the FFVP schools, including Alachua, Archer, Boulware, Caring and Sharing, C.B. Parker, Foster, Glen Springs, Idylwild, Irby, Lake Forest, Littlewood, Metcalfe, Newberry Elementary, Norton, One Room, Rawlings, Shell, Terwilliger, and Williams. Students at some of the schools have already received the special treat, and distribution will continue through the 27th of October.

“The Food & Nutrition Department is thrilled to be able to offer this delicious, tasty, and healthy treat to the students that participate in the Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Program,” said Jamie Lovett, Food & Nutrition Services Director. “We know this special treat is going to be a nice surprise and enjoyed by all.”  

  • I hope these kids really understand the benefits of eating well and actually eat this stuff. Nonetheless, why does the USDA presume this is a responsibility and jurisdiction it should have? They take money from us only to then distribute it back to kids in our state. At what cost, how much was lost in bureaucratic overhead and waste?

    The answer is because We the People, through our elected representatives, tell the USDA it’s should do this.

    We need more constitutionally-educated voters.

  • It looks lovely, and also expensive. I really hope these arrangements don’t end up in the trash like so much of the healthy food that Michelle Obama’s required school lunch menus did.

    I’m a bit torn on issues like this. Fiscally, this seems excessive. But I do see value in helping children who aren’t fed well at home to see a different way of eating.

    Seems another example of government doing what parents should be doing. The underlying issue to address is not really about food, but about strengthening families, and the economy, so that families can buy their own healthy food, including wonderful treats like edible fruit arrangements.

    Maybe if we were energy independent so we could afford both fuel AND food, and government incentivized marriage rather than single heads of household as the model for a family, then healthy food would be both more affordable and also much more likely to be provided by parents working together to care for their own children, which is the best case scenario for children and the country as a whole.

    Edible Arrangements does a beautiful job of making healthy fruit look like the treat that it is! They are doing a great thing – I don’t mean to take away from their effort in this government funded program.

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