Hundreds of hungry students rushed into the school cafeteria at Marston Middle School in Clairemont today.
On the menu was fresh broccoli; not just any old broccoli.
This broccoli comes from local farms -- the latest crop to end up on school lunch trays in San Diego Unified.
Roughly 9,000 pounds of locally grown broccoli will be chopped-up and served to San Diego school kids over the next few days.
It is part of the San Diego Unified School District’s farm-to-school movement.
The goal of the district’s program is to serve nutritious meals by getting local growers to harvest foods for young students.
“I’ve always liked (broccoli) because I think of it as little trees,” said Litzy Ramirez, an 11-year-old student at Marston.
Schools have been serving locally grown produce for about a year, but the program just now seems to be catching on with students across the district.
So far this year students they have enjoyed the locally harvested apples, tangerines and squash.
Food services officials hope to serve an entire meal of locally grown foods at least once a month. They're choosing to work with local growers with small farms within 150 miles of district boundaries.
