In school lunchrooms around Lake Tahoe, students line up for a red, hairy fruit called a rambutan. On pozole day, they shout, “We want more!” And when the salad bar runs dry, they ask the staff to refill it – over and over.

This brings joy to the cafeteria crew, but Gage Gautheier recently bestowed the highest possible praise from a middle-schooler: “I have literally never heard anyone complain about the food.”

Tahoe-Truckee Unified is among 500 California school districts that get their food through the state’s Farm to School program, which pairs local farmers, ranchers and other food producers with school districts to provide fresh meals to students. The program has been so successful since it started in 2021 that this month the state expanded it and made it a permanent part of the Department of Food and Agriculture.