State of Health Blog from KQED News » Central Valley

Small Farmer In Central Valley Takes His Strawberries ‘Farm to School’

state of health — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 18:07:03 +0000

Pao Saephan’s strawberries are just days away from being fully ripe. (Rebecca Plevin/Valley Public Radio)

Pao Saephan crouches down in his sun-drenched field. He cups a red jewel in his hand. In a few more days, his strawberries will be fully ripe. He’ll pick them once they are rosy red from stem to tip.

“We want all the strawberries, to be full ripe, full flavor, with 100 percent sugar in them,” says Saephan.

In the past, he would sell the fresh berries at his roadside stand, in the small town of Reedley, southeast of Fresno.

The goal is for children to “experience fresh produce and make healthy eating choices over a lifetime.”

But this year, he will sell the bulk of his berries directly to the Fresno Unified School District. He says he is thrilled to share the fruits of his labor with Central Valley students.

“We have farmed a long time, but this is my passion, to be farming something that feeds local,” says Saephan.

Saephan is the first small farmer to sell his produce directly to Fresno Unified. He could pave the way for other small farmers to begin selling their produce directly with the school district.

Jose Alvarado, food services director for Fresno Unified notes that the district is located in the “produce and vegetable capital” of the world. “We have been taking advantage of that,” he says, “but now it’s taking it to another level, from the farmer, when the occasion is right, and it meets our needs. Strawberries were just a natural for us.”

Alvarado hopes every Fresno Unified student can taste Saephan’s strawberries at their peak. His goal, he said, is for children to “experience fresh produce and make healthy eating choices over a lifetime.”

Still, he acknowledged that there are several barriers to linking small farms and large school districts. For logistical reasons, it’s often easier for school districts to buy produce from large distributors.

“Some school districts like to work with one company: you go to the grocery store, not the cucumber stand, the broccoli stand, the strawberry stand,” Alvarado said.

He said another challenge is that some small farmers are not trained in food safety.

“Pao is our first step to truly go to the farm – we have worked with other farmers, this is one where the farmer was lacking all the food safety certifications,” Alvarado said. “We’re breaking new ground with Pao, and learning what it takes for him to be certified.”

Despite those barriers, Alvarado said there are many benefits to buying produce, and especially strawberries, from local farmers. Among those is the cost.

The district serves about 85,000 meals a day. Alvarado’s goal is for each of those meals to include three or four of Saephan’s beauties.

“A locally grown strawberry that we buy from the farmer more than likely will be more cost effective for the district,” Alvarado said. “But that’s not the driver.”

Beyond dollars, strawberries are one of those fruits that just taste better when they’re picked fully ripe.

“The driver is, fresh products that taste good are more likely to be eaten than products that don’t,” Alvarado said. “If they don’t eat it, we’re wasting money.” Plus fruits and vegetables in school lunches that end up in the trash aren’t helping children’s overall nutrition either.

Fresno Unified students should start seeing Saephan’s berries on the menu in May.

Rural Husband and Wife Doctor Team Reflect on Careers in Medicine and Public Service

Lisa Aliferis — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 21:45:57 +0000

For more than three decades, Drs. Marcia and Oscar Sablan have served the tiny Central Valley town of Firebaugh. In an affectionate portrait today, the Los Angeles Times describes a couple who made a plan to work for three years in a rural area and walk away from all their medical school debt. As Marcia Sablan mentioned last week in a panel discussion in Fresno, she and her husband moved from Hawaii and arrived in Firebaugh in July on what turned out to be the hottest day of the year.

The couple never left Firebaugh, and today they are fixtures in the community. But what I found particularly interesting was the couple’s recognition that medicine only goes so far, as reporter Anna Gorman describes in the Times article:

… (A)s they built up their medical practice, the Sablans say, they realized that they could do only so much in the exam room. For example, they would tell their diabetic patients to exercise, but there were few places to do so. So they turned to politics. “I just saw that was the only way change could be made,” says Marcia Sablan, who is still on the city council.

During her time in city government, Sablan has helped get more affordable housing, parks and a walking path in the city. She also spearheaded the opening of a child care center. Her husband, who is also still on the school board, helped get sidewalks built near the schools so students could walk to campus.

“What I do there is just as important but more far-reaching in terms of health outcomes,” he says, “than what I do taking care of the day-to-day patients.”

Sidewalks, parks, walking paths. These are what policy types call the “built environment.” And as the Sablans have found, what we build can contribute immeasurably to our overall health.

Temperatures, Smog Soar in Central Valley — as Statewide Track Meet Starts

Lisa Aliferis — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 21:46:50 +0000

Farming in the Central Valley is a major contributor to the area's smog. (Photo: Getty Images)

California’s Central Valley sadly boasts some of the dirtiest air in the country and the as the temperature goes up, the air quality usually goes down.

Right now, The Weather Channel shows it’s 102 in Clovis, a town northeast of Fresno. EPA’s AirNow site says the air quality for all of Fresno County has nudged into the “unhealthy for everyone” category. At this level the site says “everyone may begin to experience health effects.”

And today is especially important in Clovis, because the city is hosting the prestigious CIF State Track and Field Championships. Scores of athletes from across the state will be competing in air that could make them ill.

But it doesn’t stop there. From the Fresno Bee:

To make matters worse, the hourly updates on ozone pollution will be unavailable online at times today because the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District is performing maintenance on its system.

Ozone is a corrosive gas that often reaches its peak in the late afternoon in the San Joaquin Valley. The CIF championships will begin with field events at 3 p.m. at Buchanan High School’s Veteran Memorial Stadium. The running events are scheduled at 5 p.m.

Kevin Hall, Director of the Central Valley Air Quality Coalition, says sporting events should be delayed. Even waiting an hour or two can often be sufficient for air quality levels to improve. “The coaches and administrators usually take caution during practices, but in an event like this, there’s a conflict of interest. … They may err on the side of convenience,” Hall told me in an interview this afternoon.

Sporting events can pose a risk for athletes in this unhealthy air, he says. “Many and perhaps most of these athletes come from outside the valley,” Hall said. “So, one, they’re not acclimated to heat, and two, they might have a condition they’re not aware of. People come to the valley and experience asthma attacks for the first time in their lives.”

The National Weather Service predicts it will be 95 tomorrow in Clovis.