COMPTON, Calif., ? The highly urbanized city of Compton might seem an unlikely place to find farm-fresh produce, but that?s just what elementary students in the Compton Unified School District find on a daily basis as the district now operates farm-to-school salad bars at all of its 24 elementary schools.

Tracie Thomas, the district?s assistant food services director, arrived in Compton from the Santa Monica-Malibu School District in 2003. Thomas was brought to Compton to replicate the successful farm-to-school program she initiated there despite the huge disparity between the two areas.

This was no easy task. The demographics of the two districts couldn?t be more different. Compton is an inner-city area more often reported on for its high crime rate than for positive community programs like this, and in the Compton Unified School District all of the nearly 20,000 students are eligible for a free lunch program.

The Santa Monica-Malibu area is known for its beaches and celebrity residents, with only about half its students eligible for lunch programs.

Many people didn?t think it would work in Compton, and Thomas set out to prove them wrong.

?When I first came in November 2003, I was not perceived very well at all,? said Thomas. ?I heard these food service directors say, ?You can do it in Santa Monica because in your backyard you have a community that?s nutrition-oriented, but we don?t.?

?We started implementing in February 2004 and as of today, we are in every elementary school. We have met our goal. This is a very depressed low-income community and we are doing it, it?s just a matter of the food service director wanting to do it,? she said. ?If you have a food service director that?s innovative you can do it.?

Not only are they doing it, but the food services staff has taken the program to heart.

?These cafeteria supervisors have gotten so involved in what they are doing. ... We actually went in there and trained the staff, talked about why we are implementing farm-to-school, and talked about the obesity epidemic kids are facing,? Thomas said. ?We are not just kitchen ladies, we are nutrition experts, nutrition specialists, and we are providing them with a host of nutrition education and information that will stay with them for a lifetime.?

The students have also embraced the program. Each day, students choose between the traditional hot lunch of the day and the salad bar lunch, and on many days of the month, the line for the salad bar is far longer than for the traditional lunch.

Just as she did with the staff, Thomas educated the students before implementing the program.

She did this by featuring hands-on components such as the very successful ?Harvest of the Month? program, which provides nutrition and fruit and vegetable information as well as offering tastes of the featured fruit or vegetable. It also features different ways to prepare the item and since they introduced the harvest of the month, the students are eating more vegetables.

The salad bars feature produce purchased from farmers within a 150-mile radius of the area. There are different varieties of lettuce, carrots, broccoli, pixie tangerines, strawberries, oranges and other seasonal produce.

That is why Thomas also believes that farm-to-school programs also have the power to change the lives of small farmers.

?We have to find a creative, innovative way to sustain our local farmers, they?re just going away,? she said. ?If the farmers can connect in a relationship with the school district that?s going to guarantee them a substantial revenue because you have guaranteed partners.?

She believes the current model of produce acquisition just doesn?t provide the students with what they need.

?School districts spend billions of dollars on produce, and it?s going to these big vendors that are providing our kids with produce that?s been stored for months and that loses 70 percent of its nutrients,? she said.

While it?s not easy for farmers to connect with a local school district by going directly to the food service directors, Thomas recommends going through a cooperative or an existing network of farmers already involved in farm-to-school programs.

Although the process of starting a farm-to-school program can seem overwhelming, it can be started on a small scale at first. Said Thomas, ?Just start somewhere. I wouldn?t say you have to start big but you can do a pilot in each school and you will see a change; they will eat it if we provide it for them.?

For Thomas, not providing healthy alternatives for our kids is unacceptable.

?Look at the future of our kids. At the rate these kids are going, some of them are not going to outlive our parents, that is huge,? she said. ?We as food service directors need to provide our kids with fruits and vegetables because we are here to help these kids; that?s our job.?