Most people hand out candy on Halloween, but not our Farm-to-School Team! We spent the day at the Pasadena Convention Center giving away fresh fruit, tote bags, and smiles instead.
Halloween 2025 just happened to fall during the California School Nutrition Association’s Annual Conference (CSNA), one of our favorite events of the year. We had a fantastic time hugging our clients, spreading the word about our fresh produce and snack deliveries to new districts, and sharing fresh fruit with everyone who stopped by our booth.
Here are just a few highlights from the weekend.
The Message From Our Clients: Reliability Matters
Our biggest highlight from CSNA was seeing our clients in person. It was great to exchange hugs, high-fives, and handshakes, and hear their perspective on our program. One of the big themes in those conversations this year was reliability. Jeff Kobayashi of East Whittier City School District stopped by the booth to thank us for always showing up with produce when his deliveries from other vendors fall through.
Before the conference, he emailed us this incredibly kind note:
“We have made several last-minute requests to The FruitGuys when we have been shorted by our other vendors. Each and every time, The FruitGuys has come through for us. The customer service and support that we receive is second to none, and it is greatly appreciated. Your team does such an excellent job at taking care of us. I wish all vendors could take a lesson from a business like you.”
Jeff, if you’re reading this, it was wonderful to see you! Thank you for trusting us to come through for your schools every time.
Hot Trend #1: Unique Produce
Our CSNA booth was absolutely overflowing with a rainbow of fresh fall fruits and veggies, from apples to miniature pumpkins. Everything was free for the taking—and it almost all disappeared. People were particularly excited about the unique items like persimmons, rambutans, and star fruits that our Los Angeles Produce Buyer, Miguel Robles, handed out at the booth.
“Everyone loves apples and bananas, but it’s still nice to mix things up,” explained Krizzia De La Cuesta, one of our school account senior coordinators. “Schools get tired of serving the same old fruit to their students every day. They really look forward to our unique items and introducing kids to something new.”
Hot Trend #2: Local Sourcing
Local sourcing is still a hot topic. A lot of nutrition services staff who stopped by told us they want to buy more produce from local California farms and share more farm stories with their students, which we love to hear!
At The FruitGuys, we help make that easy by listing farms on our price sheets and providing student nutrition education materials and staff resources about our farmers. We also offer velocity reports to help schools track their local purchases by farm and by food miles. It was great to hear that those pieces are helpful.
Learn more about our farm partners.
Nutrition Education in the Spotlight
The theme of CSNA this year was “Engage, Inspire, Grow,” so we filled our booth with inspiring signs and some of our favorite posters. The posters were a big hit! They’re just one of our complementary nutrition education materials, which clients can access for free on our Client Portal. We offer all of our materials digitally and also print and mail a batch of posters to the schools we serve every year.
“Everyone loved the posters, Produce Cards, and recipes. We got a lot of questions about them,” said Carol Stewart, our director of school program development.
We had a great time talking about those materials and sharing our latest additions, like our 2025–2026 Menu Calendar Template—an editable calendar that nutrition services staff can fill in with their menu items and share with students, staff, and families.
Winning Best Overall Booth (Again)
Last but not least, we have to mention the big honor of the conference: We won Best Overall Booth again! The CSNA board members give out the award every year, and we were proud to take it home to the FruitGuys for the second year running.
“This was our biggest booth ever, and we were one of the only booths that had fresh produce out for people to taste and take,” said Jaysa Tabbada, another of our school account senior coordinators. “I think that all of our posters and banners, and our coordinating outfits really set us apart. We were so surprised and happy to get the award for the second year.”
A Bright Future for Farm-to-School
As always, CSNA was a great learning experience for us. We used the conference as an opportunity to ask questions and find out how we can continue helping the school districts we serve in the coming year and beyond. We left feeling inspired.
“It sounds like districts want more unique items and more opportunities to celebrate local farms,” said Carol. “We’re excited to make that happen! They can count on us to be there with exactly what they need, exactly when they need it.”