Miguel Villarreal, Eat REAL Board Member and school food visionary, celebrated his retirement after 40 years as a public school Foodservice Director by dedicating a bikeraiser to Eat REAL this weekend. He rode up Mt. Diablo on Sunday, August 1st, with 10 pounds of sugar strapped to his bike – the amount of sugar Eat REAL Certification can remove from a child’s school meals each year. Fellow board member Andrew Deitz and friend Julie Rapoport joined him for the ride.
Miguel dedicated his career to bringing healthful food to school meals for the simple fact that every child deserves access to nourishing food regardless of their family’s economic status. For many families, locally grown real foods are expensive and unattainable – and the work to provide kids with healthy food that will help them learn, grow, and thrive, is far from over.
“Help Eat REAL make nourishing food a standard in all schools and help families bridge the gap in equity.” – Miguel Villarreal, Eat REAL Board Member and school food visionary
The money raised will help Eat REAL expand our certification program to the 150 schools currently on our waitlist. When a school joins our program, we help transform their school food by finding ways to source fresh, minimally processed, and local ingredients so they can serve meals that are both nutritious and environmentally friendly. The districts waiting to join our program serve more than 100,000 children, and with your help, we can remove 1 million pounds of sugar from their school meals.
There’s still time to help us raise the $20K needed to remove 1M pounds of sugar! Join the fun by dedicating one of your August rides (indoor or outdoor) and tagging @eatrealcertified on Instagram. Or donate directly to the campaign here. Every $10 donated to the ride helps eliminate 10 pounds of sugar from one student’s meals over the course of the school year.
