Students at Maricopa Unified School District schools will start the coming new school year with fresh, locally grown produce.
The district got the green light from the school board last week to bid for local produce to bring to all MUSD20 students.
“We’ll have more access to produce that’s grown in Arizona,” said MUSD Child Nutrition Director Jason Woods. “In addition to that access, we’ll have access to specialty produce that you don’t normally see in a cafeteria.”
Think prickly pears for breakfast. Blood oranges for lunch. Micro green basil on your kid’s salad bar.
“They’re available to us here within the state and if we can get things like that and kind of surprise the kids, we always try to do that,” Woods told InMaricopa.
Currently, the district buys all of their victuals from Shamrock Foods. With their blessing, the district just signed on two additional vendors who source Arizona-grown ingredients.
”It’s the best thing for the students,” said Woods. “If we’re getting things from Arizona, if we’re getting things locally from Maricopa, we’re not pulling things from Mexico or Washington or Canada or New York or Michigan, where a lot of some of these things are grown.”
There is a lot that happens between now and seeing micro basil on students’ plates. Woods says they need to setup formal contracts and relationships with these Arizona-based vendors.
Woods, who has a background in fine dining around the Phoenix metro, brings a chef sensibility to the district. He says having three vendors gives him more price options to find the cheaper produce. won’t cost the district any more and could eventually bring huge cost savings to the school district.
“There’s going to be a savings there,” said Woods. “There is the possibility long term for grant opportunities that could help offset some of the costs.”
In 2024, the USDA awarded $75.4 million to 172 projects across 41 states to support programs like the one being established at Maricopa schools.
Woods says he is also looking for farms to partner with.
“I know how many farmers there are out here, but I don’t know them,” he said, “and if there are any farmers and farms out here that have produce that they’d be willing to partner with the district with, if they’re set up to sell that commercially, we’d love to have them reach out to us.”
You can reach the Maricopa Child Nutrition Department at Child Nutrition Department at 520-568-5100 or [email protected].
