Grow Riverside Conference - Rodney Taylor announces the RUSD will purchase from Fox farm / Hapeman Ranch.

I attended the Grow Riverside conference the past two days.  It was held at the Riverside Convention Center.   They had a poster of me listed as an urban farmer.  I appreciated the exposure and met some future customers.   The big news was the Rodney Taylor, Director of Nutrition Services for RUSD, announced the they would be buying produce from my farm during his keynote speech in the main hall.   This was also news to me, because I was in talks with growing for their school lunch program.
Rodney Taylor oversees the nutrition department which prepares and delivers food to 31 schools with 43,000 student every day.   He mentioned that they spend $4 million dollars a year on produce and only $400,000 was purchased locally, but he wants to increase that with his nationally recognized Farm to School program.    This is great news for my farm.   Thank you, Rodney!


They had a couple posters of me in the exhibit hall and also featured me and my farm, in the opening film highlighting Riverside's agricultural past and future.

Here is a picture of Rodney Taylor.   He is a charismatic and energetic friend to small family farmers through his efforts to buy locally for the school district.