Chairman’sMessage

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S c h o o l F o o d s e r v i c e E d i t i o nS c h o o l F o o d s e r v i c e E d i t i o nP u b l i s h e d b y t h e C a l i f o r n i a C l i n g P e a c h B o a r d

Welcome Back!

It’s great to know many of you attended the ASFSA ANCin Indianapolis this summer. I would like to thank

those who stopped by the California Cling Peach Board’sbooth and participated in the Coalition for GoodNutrition’s survey about California apricots and clingpeaches. The information gathered from these surveyshas been very helpful to our promotion of these specialtyfruits and will continue to aid us in our support of childnutrition. To read more about the survey results and tofind out who won the summer Coach bag raffle prize,see “We Asked; You Answered” in this issue.

In addition to the ASFSA ANC survey results, this issueexplores the low-carb diet trend’s introduction into manystudents’ lives and how limiting one’s intake of fruitsmay lead to weight gain in the future. As growers of“smart-carb,” vitamin-rich fruit we are concerned thatAmericans, especially children, are not consumingenough fruits due to low-carb lifestyles. And as childnutrition advocates, you are working hard to improveand maintain your students’ eating habits and health. Tolearn more about this trend and how to approach it withyour program, see “Where Do You Weigh In…Are LowCarbs High Risk?”

Also in this issue, the California Cling Peach Board islaunching its “Director-to-Director” Program, featuringformer school foodservice director and executive chefDiane Wegner Deshler. In this quarterly column, Deshlerwill present relevant school foodservice issues, field yourquestions and concerns, and offer “Director-to-Director”advice. Send us topics you would like discussed in thecolumn or just let us know what you think by emailingcalclingpeach@echopr.com.

On behalf of the California Cling Peach Board, I wish youthe best of luck for this school year. We are committedto you and your students, so please feel free to contactus with any educational items you may need throughoutthe year.

Sarb JohlChairman, California Cling Peach Boardcalclingpeach@echopr.com

School foodservice profes-sionals play an influentialpart in students’ food choicesand may be able to help themmake nutritious decisionsthat will benefit them longafter they finish school.According to a six-year studypublished in the AmericanJournal of Clinical Nutritionin August, researchers atLaval University in Quebec,Canada, revealed that theconsistent consumption offruits over time helps thebody maintain its weight as itgets older.

This news comes at theheight of the low-carb craze,which favors higher-fat foodchoices, such as red meat.However, it proves that sucheating habits, although bene-ficial to your waistline now,may result in weight gain inthe future. As noted in thestudy’s findings, eating high-fat foods leads to a high-fatbody over time. Alternately,a high intake of lower-caloriefoods, including fruit, results

in a much lower fat intake,resulting in little or noweight gain over time.Although the concept ofmaintaining your weight byavoiding high-fat foods is notnew, most people do not rec-ognize that consistentlyhealthy eating habits maytrain the body to maintain itsweight. As a role model dur-ing your students’ formativeyears, you can teach themeating habits that will notonly keep them healthy now,but in the future as well.Encourage daily fruit con-sumption by rewarding stu-dents for meeting 5-A-Daygoals or trying new fruits.As a result, fruit consump-tion will become part of theirdaily routine that will last alifetime.

To get more informationabout the Laval Universitystudy please visit theCalifornia Cling PeachBoard’s “In the News”section at:www.calclingpeach.com.

Fight Fat with Fruit

FREE Educational Materials!

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The California Cling Peach Board is excited to announce the releaseof their NEW educational materials, including pens, pencils and stick-ers! The free materials, meant to promote and reward healthy eat-ing habits, join the Board’s existing educational materials supply,which includes foodservice kits, posters, recipes and more!

Decorate your cafeterias with California cling peach pals andposters, hand out pencils and stickers to kids with healthy eatinghabits, and support American peach growers by wearing our “BuyAmerican” button.To view our educational materials supply, visit www.calclingpeach.com.To order materials, email calclingpeach@echopr.com with your request. Please be sure to includeyour name, school district and shipping address (no P.O. boxes).Offer good while supplies last.

The California Cling Peach Board, in collaborationwith the Apricot Producers of California, surveyedapproximately 500 school foodserviceprofessionals at the 58th annualAmerican School FoodserviceAssociation’s Annual National Conference(ASFSA ANC) in Indianapolis, Indiana inJuly. The Coalition for Good Nutritionsurveys were conducted to better under-stand schools’ California apricot and clingpeach usage and to learn how the Boardcan better serve the school food-service sector. District directors,supervisors, managers and cafete-ria employees participated in thesurvey, allowing the Coalition toobtain information from all schoolfoodservice levels.

As thanks for the thoughtful com-pletion of surveys, the Coalition entered all partici-pants into a drawing for a summer Coach bag—whichproved to be a huge incentive for passersby. TheCoalition is happy to announce the winner of theirCoach bag raffle, Karen Mott, foodservice director for

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We Asked; You Answered!the Lacey Township School district in Lanoka Harbor,New Jersey, and thanks all participants for their contin-

ued support.

The Coalition looks forward to using thesurvey results to improve our program andbetter suit your California apricot andcling peach needs. As the California apri-cot and peach industries continue to com-pete with foreign imports, it is importantto understand the districts’ and co-ops’

fruit-purchasing needs and expec-tations. As a result, the Coalitionwill use these results to better serveour “school-age” consumers andyou, the school foodservice profes-sional.

We look forward to seeing you atnext year’s conference, now named

the School Nutrition Association (SNA), in Baltimore,Maryland. Until then, please email any questions, con-cerns, requests or ideas to the Coalition via theCalifornia Cling Peach Board atcalclingpeach@echopr.com.

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I N D U S T R I E S

Buttons&

Stickers

Educational Materials (Coming soon)& Bookmarks

Pens&

Pencils

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Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to our new “Director to Director”column. As the new school year begins, TheCalifornia Cling Peach Board (CCPB) is lookingforward to meeting and working with schoolfoodservice directors, supervisors and foodservicestaff across the country. We have met many ofyou at school foodservice conferences and arehoping to expand our outreach at more stateevents and supervisory chapter meetings.

The CCPB is creating a School Nutrition AdvisoryPanel. This panel will be comprised of foodser-vice directors, supervisors and nutrition specialistswho can assist us as we continue to look for thebest ways to meet the needs of school foodserviceprofessionals.

The school districts involved with this panel canhelp us test run a variety of new activities andrecipes currently in development. Some of theprograms that you will see in the near future thatare part of this panel include: new recipes andmenus; professional development presentationsfor manager meetings, staff development daysand chapter meetings; National Nutrition Monthactivities that link the cafeteria staff with a class-room teacher; as well as marketing materials forcafeteria promotions.

In the months to come, our newsletter will also befeaturing stories from the Advisory Panel districtsabout interested activities and programs that wewould like to share with all of our readers.

We are excited about providing the best“American Peaches for America’s Students,” aswell as supporting the people who serve our stu-dents—you, the school foodservice professional.

If you or someone in your district is interested inparticipating in the CCPB’s School NutritionAdvisory Panel, please feel free to contact D i a n e W e g n e r D e s h l e r , a tcalclingpeach@echopr.com.

As a former school foodservice director and exec-utive chef, I look forward to meeting and talkingwith as many school foodservice professionalsthat the CCPB can meet in this new school year.Until next time!

Diane Wegner DeshlerSchool and Commodity Director

Many Americans have embracedthe low-carb craze and as a resultmany foodservice companies arealtering their menus to fit theircustomers’ desires. Schools, how-ever, are not as keen about jump-ing onto the low-carb bandwagondue to the Food Guide limitationslow-carb diets impose on their fol-lowers. But aschildhood obe-sity continuesto rise, schoolf o o d s e r v i c eprofessionalsmay have tobegin cateringto parents andstudents whorequest low-carb options—an idea that isboth applaud-ed andopposed.

While both low-carb supportersand opposersagree thatschools shouldoffer healthierlunch, à la carte and vendingoptions, they disagree when itcomes to limiting other foods,such as breads and grains.Proponents believe it’s importantto make low-carb options avail-able to students who may bewatching their weight. Manydirectors and child nutritionists,however, believe that significantlystraying from the Food GuidePyramid’s recommendations is abad idea for growing students

Director––to––

Director and is a concept yet to beapproved or even consideredby the USDA. Instead, theysupport healthier options,smaller portions and increasedexercise.

As a school foodservice profes-sional, you may face this chal-

lenge on adaily basis—how do youapproach it?Are you for oragainst low-carb optionson schoolmenus andwould yousupport stu-dents whoembrace low-carb eatinghabits? Asalways, theC a l i f o r n i aCling PeachBoard is inter-ested in yourfeedback andwill use it toupdate our

program to better suit yourneeds. Please send your low-c a r b r a n t s a n d raves tocalclingpeach@echopr.com and,to thank you for your time, wewill send you a California ClingPeach Pal (free, while supplies last).––––––––––––––––––––––––––To read more about low-carboptions in schools please visitthe California Cling PeachBoard’s “In the News” sectionat www.calclingpeach.com.

Where Do You Weigh In…

Are Low Carbs High Risk?

California Cling Peaches at harvest. Pickedfresh and packed fresh within 24 hours.

c/o Echo Communications1485 Park Avenue

Suite 200Emeryville, CA 94608

The Peach Press is published by Echo Communications, LLCon behalf of the California Cling Peach Board. Commentsor suggestions can be sent to: Echo Communications,1485 Park Avenue, Suite 200, Emeryville, CA 94608 oremailed to: calclingpeach@echopr.com.

Copyright Echo Communications, LLC 2004.All rights reserved.

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Need More Copies?Is there a school or district meeting coming up? You canprint more copies directly from our website at www.cal-clingpeach.com. Go to the “Newsletter” link in theFoodservice Section to print out this issue and/or previousissues of The Peach Press.

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In the Peach Press’ summer newslet-ter, we asked school foodservice pro-fessionals to send us cafeteria-testedand kid-approved canned CaliforniaCling Peach uses. As a thank you, theBoard entered each tried-and-truesubmission into a summer Coach bagraffle.

Judy Gaines, a Cafeteria Manager forDeer Valley School District in Phoenix,Arizona, is the happy winner of thesummer Coach bag raffle! Her entry,

which revealed that she and hercoworkers add diced California ClingPeaches to vanilla yogurt and serve itfor breakfast, is a hit among her stu-dents. “We couldn’t make them fastenough,” said Gaines.

A healthy way to start the day,California Cling Peaches in yogurt offerplenty of vitamins and nutrients to givekids the jump-start they need in themorning. Your students won’t be ableto resist sweet, juicy peaches combinedwith creamy yogurt!

Judy GainesDeer Valley School DistructPhoenix, AZ