Dear Colleagues,

When I pick up the local newspaper each morning to scan the headlines, I am impressed at the increasing number of articles about school food service programs, children's health, and the epidemic of childhood obesity. Having worked as a school food service director, I understand the realities and challenges of operating a successful school nutrition program. My work allows me the opportunity to meet with a large number of food industry and agricultural organizations, and I am constantly advocating for all parties to truly understand the infrastructure of school nutrition programs as one of the best ways to support positive additions to these programs which are being run by you, the dedicated professionals.

Here at the California Cling Peach Board, we are always looking for the best ways to support these efforts to promote increased fruit and vegetable consumption in schools, to the parents of school-aged children and to all consumers at home.

The California Cling Peach Board represents over 800 California peach growers who provide healthy, nutritious, domestic fruit for the school commodity program. The California Cling Peach Board is excited to present the "CCPB Recipe Network," which will be available to all of you in the next two months. In the new "Recipe Network," there will be new recipes, serving ideas and menu suggestions that have been developed specifically for school nutrition professionals. Many of the recipes are from school districts around the country that use peaches in their school menus and have willingly shared their success stories with us. Thank you to everyone at their school districts who have been extremely helpful in supplying their recipes and menu ideas!

Lastly, this morning I read another newspaper article about nutrition in schools. Although I continually notice that some of these articles don't seem to tell the complete story (which makes me want to write the reporter and set them straight about what a terrific job school nutrition professionals are doing!), I also believe that the more this conversation is brought to the forefront of discussion, ultimately, the more it will benefit all students and their school nutrition advocates. Here's to more discussion about fruits and vegetables, local growers and a healthy school environment for our students.

Feel free to contact me anytime,

Diane Wegner Deshler

dianewd@echopr.com