To our trusted School Food Service leaders and partners…
We’re so excited to share two success stories this past month – a major recognition for one of California’s largest school districts, and a spotlight on a special small family farm we can’t wait to show you.
Thanks Fresno USD Nutrition Services for being Good Food Purchasing champions!
Fresno Unified School District Earns Good Food Leader Silver Designation
On February 13, the FUSD Nutrition Services team celebrated their achievement through the Good Food Purchasing Program – honoring their commitment to local procurement, food equity, and student nutrition.
Their program has invested $3.9 million in food vendors within 50 miles of Fresno, providing quality food to their students and directly supporting local food businesses and family farmers. They met targets in three value categories: Local and Community Based Economies, Environmental Sustainability, and Valued Workforce.
Read more about Fresno USD’s Silver Status achievement.
Learn more about the Center for Good Food Purchasing and their latest updates here.
FUSD delivering delicious scratch-cooked meals AND supporting their local economies.
FARMER SPOTLIGHT: TWIN TREE FARMS
Meet Twin Tree Farms (Madera, CA) – a small family farm specializing in sustainably grown mandarins with something special that sets them apart: a vertically integrated operation with their own on-site packinghouse.
That means they grow, harvest, and pack their fruit right on the farm, giving them full control over freshness and quality from tree to box. Sarah Weil grew up on the farm and returned to her family’s farm to build the packinghouse. By leveraging their ingenuity and scrappy small farm magic, they have a state-of-the-art packinghouse that allows them to deliver the FRESH, HIGH QUALITY, and DELICIOUS MANDARINS.
Sarah Weil showcasing her prized Tango mandarins to the CAFF Farm to Market team.
What Makes Twin Tree Farms Different:
Twin Tree Farms uses a picked-to-order, not just-packed-to-order approach that sets them apart from other citrus suppliers. Mandarins that go through traditional distribution channels typically spend weeks in cold storage, negatively impacting their quality, nutrition, and holding time. Twin Tree Farms uses a harvest-to-order model, meaning that fruit is picked, packed, and delivered in as little as 48 hours.
Unmatched Speed & Freshness tailored for School Nutrition:
- Their packinghouse is built for speed, specializing in stem-and-leaf presentation, where time is critical to ensure market quality.
- Classic bald fruit leverages the packinghouse’s speed to make sure you get the freshest fruit possible.
- Their strict freshness protocols and minimal holding time also align with the highest food safety standards, giving you added confidence in product quality.
- Fruit is graded to match your serving size requirements for accurate meal planning and portion control.
Twin Tree Farms’ large vs small fruit: Same great quality and taste
Select the right sized fruit for your needs
Twin Tree Farms will deliver freshly picked, graded, washed, and waxed fruit to your district. What we especially love about Twin Tree Farms is their smaller-sized mandarins. The texture is more delicate in the small mandarins, making them even more enjoyable for kids. Plus kids love tiny fruit!
The trees produce fruit of all sizes, but the commercial market favors larger fruit. By selecting smaller sizes, you’re getting a great product, and it makes a huge difference for small farms like Twin Tree Farms. These small choices (literally!) make a huge impact for your local fruit growers.
Twin Tree Farms specializes in selling to school districts across California. They have the highest food safety standards and they are a trusted partner for many school nutrition programs – both large and small.
Interested in sourcing mandarins from Twin Tree Farms? Check out their PRODUCT SHEET, and contact Sarah Weil, sarah@twintreefarms.com, 599-232-6101. If you are in the area, schedule a farm and packinghouse tour!
Need help with your RFPs this spring?
Bid season is upon us, and we’re here to help make it easier than ever. Bid Generator 2.0 is ready to simplify your RFP process! This FREE and easy-to-use online tool now supports General Produce, Local Produce, Local Milk, and Local Meat contracts.
We offer FREE one-on-one assistance with school food professionals who want support through the RFP contract process for SY 2026-2027. If you’re interested, please email Michelle Duong at mduong@caff.org.
Climate-Friendly School Food Webinar Series
Friends of the Earth has an exciting Climate-Friendly School Food Webinar series starting on February 17 with Ideas for Plant-Based in School Breakfasts. The 4-part series features a line-up of stellar speakers, including several nutrition service directors. Register for one or all of the series here!
APPLY NOW: Salad Bars to Schools Grant
The Chef Ann Foundation is accepting applications for their Salad Bars to Schools program, providing K-12 schools with equipment and training to successfully implement a salad bar. Apply by March 31, 2026.
BIPOC Grower Needs Assessment for K-12 Institutional Markets
The National Farm to School Network is seeking input from BIPOC growers to inform the design of resources and outreach to reflect growers’ experiences, including production scale, current engaged markets, farm to school familiarity, and barriers to K-12 institutional access.
Please share this survey with BIPOC growers in your network.
CAFF’s Farm to School specialists, Claire Tauber and Michelle Duong.
Thank you for all you do to bring local food to students’ plates and support California’s family farmers!
Sincerely,
CAFF’s Farm to School Team