Caralee Ellis

Chopped organic Romaine Lettuce: Building the Infrastructure for Organic School Meals

By • • Community

For years, we’ve heard the same thing from school districts across California: We want to serve organic romaine lettuce, but we simply don’t have the labor to process it in-house. And they’re right. While whole-head romaine works beautifully in commercial kitchens and smaller programs, most school food operations don’t have the staff, time, or infrastructure […]

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Gathering at The Ecology Center: A Day of Learning, Collaboration, and Organic Growth

By • • Community, Road Tour

During the summer of 2025, Conscious Kitchen set out on the Organic Farm-to-School Road Tour to connect small and mid-sized organic farms with school districts across California. With a vision of providing every student in the state with fresh, local, and organic food, this initiative invites school food service leaders, farmers, and community partners to

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South Coast Region: A Deep Dive into the Future of Organic School Meals

By • • Community, Road Tour

During the summer of 2025, Conscious Kitchen set out on the Organic Farm-to-School Road Tour to connect small and mid-sized organic farms with school districts across California. With a vision of providing every student in the state with fresh, local, and organic food, this initiative invites school food service leaders, farmers, and community partners to

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A Fresh Look at Farm-to-School: Our Visit to the Capay Valley

By • • Community, Road Tour

During the summer of 2025, Conscious Kitchen set out on the Organic Farm-to-School Road Tour to connect small and mid-sized organic farms with school districts across California. With a vision of providing every student in the state with fresh, local, and organic food, this initiative invites school food service leaders, farmers, and community partners to

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A Day of Connection and Community: Central Coast Gathering at Paicines Ranch

By • • Community, Road Tour

During the summer of 2025, Conscious Kitchen set out on the Organic Farm-to-School Road Tour to connect small and mid-sized organic farms with school districts across California. With a vision of providing every student in the state with fresh, local, and organic food, this initiative invites school food service leaders, farmers, and community partners to

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Celebrating a Historic Leap for Better Breakfasts: CEREAL-ously ORGANIC

By • • Community, Equity and Justice, WCCUSD

After 2+ years of collaboration, innovation, and dedication to shifting the paradigm around school food, Conscious Kitchen, Nature’s Path, and West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD) made history through a collaborative effort to radically transform a breakfast staple at schools across the nation. On May 2nd, we hosted CEREAL-ously ORGANIC at Michelle Obama Elementary

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Cultivating Connections: A Sunny Day of Organic Collaboration at Paicines Ranch 

By • • Community

On a beautiful sunny day in May, the picturesque Paicines Ranch once again set the stage for another engaging session for our Fresh, Local, Organic Culinary Workshop series. This 3rd edition of the workshop brought together school food service teams and small local organic farmers for a day of learning, collaboration, and culinary expertise. Hosted

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Downpour of Dedication: A Culinary Workshop Amidst California’s Storms

By • • Community

As the rain poured down across the state of California, our dedication to fostering connections between food service teams and small local organic farmers remained unwavering. Despite the challenging weather conditions, Conscious Kitchen and Alice Waters Institute (AWI) teams embarked on a journey to the magnificent landscape of Paicines Ranch for a winter edition of

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Conscious Kitchen’s Alternative Spring Break

By • • Community, Equity and Justice

What better way to spend spring break than conducting on-the-ground research to build food systems that support the health and wellbeing of people and planet? That’s exactly what Conscious Kitchen did with our Organic Farm to School Mapping Project and a passionate cohort of six local college and university students this spring. This cohort came

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U.S. Secretary of Agriculture & CA First Partner Pay Conscious Kitchen a Visit 

By • • Community, Equity and Justice, WCCUSD

We are always proud of our work with Conscious Kitchen! What a joy to share our organic school food program in person with top leaders across our country for National School Breakfast Week. USDA Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, California First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, Congressman John Garamendi, and State Superintendent Tony Thurmond joined Conscious

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Central Coast Organic School Food Summit

By • • Community, Equity and Justice, WCCUSD

When you want to make change, it can be hard to know where to begin. In the complex world of increasing organic and local procurement for school meals, being able to draw upon inspiration and guidance from leaders, peers, and experts is critical. With this in mind, Conscious Kitchen organized the Central Coast Organic School

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Organic School Meals Work: USDA Visits WCCUSD Summer Meal Site

By • • Community, Covid, WCCUSD

What does our school food program look like in action? The Conscious Kitchen team set up at John Herbert Davis Park in San Pablo with our partner, West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD), to showcase what is possible with fresh, local, organic school-supported agriculture programs like ours. The WCCUSD Food Truck pulled up to

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Supplier Spotlight: Earl’s Organic Produce

By • • Community, Profiles

Meet Earl Herrick of Earl’s Organic Produce We spoke to Earl Herrick, owner of Earl’s Organic Produce, about his experience in the organic industry for over 30 years. He’s had quite the journey from selling produce out of the back of his truck near Golden Gate Park, to becoming the leading regional distributor of organic produce

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Play with your Food

By • • Community

How Produce Pals were born A few years ago on a Sunday afternoon our Executive Director, Judi Shils, returned from her local farmer’s market with produce to make a bountiful seasonal salad. As she was chopping veggies, she was struck. Her slice of cucumber looked like a face! Judi decided to make a little person

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