Oct 23, 2019

California grower donates pumpkins for students to cook

About 2,725 consumer science – formerly home economics – high school students at 15 different high schools near San Joaquin will learn how to cook with locally-grown produce and meat.

The San Joaquin Chapter of California Women for Agriculture (SJ CWA), San Joaquin-Stanislaus CattleWomen and the San Joaquin Farm Bureau Federation (SJFB) have partnered to locate more than 500 pounds of food.

Fresh pumpkins and dry garbanzo beans provided by the San Joaquin Chapter of Women for Agriculture were donated by local pumpkin grower, Van Groningen and Sons of Manteca (vgandsons.com) and the Rhodes-Stockton Bean Co-Op of Stockton.

SJ CWA provides this “hands-on educational” cooking opportunity for local high school students enrolled in consumer science courses to give them a snapshot of the variety of crops and commodities grown/raised in San Joaquin County. Teachers and students are provided with a variety of educational information regarding the nutritional value of each of the commodities along with cooking tips and recipes.

RELATED: Van Groningen growers diversify crop selection

“This is an excellent opportunity to showcase the commodities grown and raised in our county,” said SJ CWA Chapter President Marit Arana.

San Joaquin County Agriculture is ranked seventh in the nation in dollar value at $2.5 billion and sixth out of 58 counties in the state, according to SJ CWA. California produces about 400 different agriculture commodities and about half the fruits and vegetables in the United States.