You won’t find any Dirty Dozen crops in our fresh produce bin!
To those of us of a certain age, “The Dirty Dozen” is a 1967 WWII movie starring Charles Bronson. But at Choicelunch and farmer’s markets around the country, it means something completely different. For us, the “Dirty Dozen” represents those fruits and veggies most at risk for pesticide contamination. Every year, the Environmental Working Group publishes the “Dirty Dozen” and “Clean Fifteen” from a list of 50 popular fruits and veggies, based on a ranking of how frequently these crops are found contaminated with pesticides.
Many shoppers use “The Dirty Dozen” as a guideline for when to spend more for organic produce, or when to dig deeper into the argiculture practices of the farm of origin. “Do you spray?” is always the first question I ask at the farmer’s market, especially when it comes to “Dirty Dozen” offenders.
Choicelunch has long worked to integrate as many local and organic ingredients into our lunches as possible. We have renewed our commitment with the start of the New Year and made it even easier for our parents to understand our rules – if it’s in our fruit and veggie bin and it’s on the Dirty Dozen list, it’s either organic or confirmed pesticide-free from the source.
Each day, as part of their lunch, your kids get to choose from a variety of hand cut fruits and vegetables in compostable baggies. This is one of the fundamental pillars of our lunch program, and we want you to know the lengths we go to make sure your kids get only the highest quality produce. Even in the ‘dead of winter,’ we pay a premium to offer the fruits your kids love without the pesticides. This week alone, our fresh produce bins are overflowing with organic apples, organic tangerines, and organic Anjou pears.
Thousands of our students daily are making the right choice by enjoying the fresh produce we serve with our lunches. Behind the scenes, we’re making the right choices as well, long before they even step up to the lunch counter.
