As part of their annual retreat, the California district staff of U.S. Representative Sam Farr (D-CA) joined their Washington counterparts and the congressman himself Tuesday for a tour of several Washington-area produce companies.

Congressman Farr, whose district includes the city of Salinas and the surrounding Monterrey County area, indicated that his staff often sees truckloads of produce leaving their district, but were interested to know more about how produce is transported to restaurants and supermarkets across the country. 

As part of the tour, the group visited the nearby Maryland Wholesale Produce Market in Jessup where they met with representatives from Cooseman's and The Tony Vitrano Company. The group then traveled to Safeway's Eastern Division Retail Distribution Center in Upper Marlboro, Md. to view their perishable facilities and see how produce is transported to Safeway stores throughout the Mid-Atlantic region.

Just in time for lunch, Congressman Farr and his staff arrived at the Elsie Whitlow Stokes Public Charter School in Washington to join students and faculty at their salad bar. United Fresh donated the salad bar to the school following its use during September’s Fresh Festival on Capitol Hill.

A wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables were available on the salad bar, including lettuce, celery, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, cucumbers, strawberries, raspberries, oranges and grapes and the kids eagerly piled up their plates.

Student government leaders divided up to sit with Congressman Farr and his staff, and then sang "Happy Birthday" in three languages to two of Farr's staffers celebrating birthdays this week.

The school’s new chef then talked about the benefits of having the salad bar, as well as the importance the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Snack Program, noting that her students now had incredible access to fresh fruits and vegetables and that it was helping to shape their lifelong eating habits.

Ed. Note: Special thanks to Safeway's Shannon Campagna, vice president of government affairs and Jack Jacobs, director of distribution, for providing an excellent tour of their perishable facility. Special thanks to Anja Latham and Rose Harrell at the Maryland Food Center Authority, Jimi Farrell at Cooseman’s and Joe and Tony Vitrano Jr. at the Tony Vitrano Company, as well as Linda Moore and the staff and students of Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Public Charter School for their time and hospitality.