Tour de Fresh brings more than 50 salad bars to schools
This year’s Tour de Fresh event brought record-breaking participation from riders, sponsors, and donations to support placing more than 50 salad bars in schools across the country through the Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools program, according to a news release. Tour de Fresh is presented by The California Giant Foundation.
Riders finished their 3-day, 200-mile bike ride at The Wharf Marketplace in Monterey, California. As of July 28, the event raised over $157,000 – $7,000 higher than what was raised in 2015, according to Cindy Jewell, vice president of marketing at California Giant Berry Farms. Since then, fundraising continues to increase and is currently at more than $160,000. In order for each rider to give a salad bar to the school that they’ve chosen, donations will be accepted until the original 2016 goal of $175,000 is raised.
Each day of the ride concluded with the presentation of special yellow jerseys to riders nominated by their peers for inspiring others and going above and beyond – something that brought everyone together in support of each person’s role in the event. Yellow jersey recipients for this year’s event included: Helena Beckett of Tanimura & Antle, Jess Kolko of Whole Foods Market, Jenn LaVardera of Dole, Ty and Troy Burns of PMA, John Lukasko of Fresh Produce Partners, Brian and Greg Vetter of Tessemae’s, John Feldeisen of Dole, John McCann of Delmonte, Ryan Wolcott of Stuppy, and Brandon & Amy Gritters of Interfresh.
Riders carried John Frey’s, of Frey Farms, photo on a stick with them throughout the event to show support while Frey was recovering from bodily injury from an accident while training just two weeks prior to the event.
Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools, led by the United Fresh Start Foundation, has facilitated donations to more than 4,650 schools across the country in the last six years. The donations have provided enough salad bars to benefit more than three million students every day, according to a Tour de Fresh press release.
