School’s Out! Fruit for Students, Rock ’n’ Roll, and Taylor Swift

My oldest son’s school has an awesome tradition called “Community Meeting.” Every few weeks, the whole school gathers to listen to live music, announcements, and kids sharing public appreciation for their fellow students, teachers, and staff. A different grade hosts the meeting each time and shares something about what they’re learning. When my son’s grade hosted, they danced in green to a song about photosynthesis. There’s always something to make me smile.

End-of-Year Nostalgia

Last week was the final Community Meeting of the school year. As I listened to an 8th-grade rock band play a speedy metal version of a Taylor Swift song, a strong, almost physical memory hit me. I was a kid again, feeling the mix of emotions that the end of the school year always brought: joy that it was done, excitement about what summer could bring, and the tiniest bit of concern about how friendships might change over the ten-week summer break.

Farm-to-School Feelings

Our school team is feeling a similar mix of emotions now as our school business winds down for the summer. You may not know this about The FruitGuys, but we don’t just serve offices—we serve schools as well. We’ve delivered fresh fruit and vegetables to students for about sixteen years now. Just this year, we’ve delivered over ten million servings of fresh produce. That’s a lot of food for a lot of students!

You can read more of those numbers and school year highlights here.

Many of the schools we deliver to are a primary source of nutrition for hundreds of low-income kids, serving three meals a day plus snacks. A few weeks ago I had the chance to join Carol, our director of school program development, on visits to five of those schools in Southern California. They took a quick week off after the school year ended, then reopened their doors for free and reduced-cost summer programs. Their nutrition services teams are passionate about serving good food despite often limited budgets, resources, and staff.

Schools have a lot to worry about, so we try to make their lives easier. We’re extremely honored to partner with them to serve healthy fruits and vegetables to their students. Of course, we couldn’t do it without our amazing school team: Carol, Czareanah, Krista, Krizzia, Jaysa, and Janielle.

A Grateful Start to Summer

Whether you’re giddy or groaning about the beginning of summer, I hope you’ll take a moment to appreciate the amazing work schools across the country are doing to feed children. We’re grateful to play a small part. If you’d like to learn more about our Farm-to-School Program (and the grants that help us keep the fruit and veggies flowing) you can find their website here.

Welcome to the Chief Banana newsletter—weekly letters from the desk of The FruitGuys’ CEO. Find more Chief Banana newsletters here. To get Chief Banana in your inbox every week, fill out the “Subscribe to our Newsletter” form on this page.