Christopher Ranch’s new Christopher Family Foundation announced it is funding the creation of salad bars at five Gilroy schools.
The philanthropic foundation of the Gilroy-based garlic processing giant said it provided salad bars for all five schools in the Gilroy Unified School District that requested them through the national United Fresh program.
“It’s a fantastic program that gets fresh fruits and vegetables to more kids than ever before,” said Ken Christopher, Christopher Ranch executive vice president. “We previously donated salad bars to South Valley Middle school a couple of months ago, and it was a great success.”
The schools to receive the new salad bars are:
Solorsano Middle School
Luigi Aprea Elementary
Glenview Elementary
Antonio Del Buono Elementary
Eliot Elementary
This is the first donation to be approved by the Christopher Family Foundation, which recently got 510c3 status to operate as a non-profit.
“We’re extremely excited for the launch of our foundation,” Christopher said. “We’re partnering with the Gilroy Foundation to do more good in Gilroy than ever before. Our hometown needs something to remind them of what makes us great, and we’re proud to step up and make a difference.”
A salad bar also is headed to Gilroy’s neighbor to the south.
San Benito High School and the Grower-Shipper Association Foundation joined representatives of local produce companies to announce on Nov. 12 the donation and placement of two new salad bars to the high school. The donations are part of the Grower-Shipper Association Foundation’s “More Produce in Schools” program, which matches local donors with local schools that request a salad bar in Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties.
The Grower-Shipper Association Foundation partners with Central Coast school food service directors and grower-shippers to make fresh, local produce more readily accessible to area students through the salad bar program.
“We are proud of all industry members who are helping ensure children in the surrounding area will be able to choose to fresh, local produce everyday as part of their school lunch,” said Lorri Koster, the Grower-Shipper Association Foundation’s president.
The Grower-Shipper Association Foundation has supported salad bars for local schools in prior years as well. In the past five years, salad bar donations have been made possible by contributions from Taylor Farms, Church Brothers Farms, Tanimura & Antle, Ocean Mist Farms, Braga Fresh Family Farms, Sabor Farms, Top Flavor Farms and Ippolito International.
