USPB Promotes Potato Friendly Salad Bars

By Growing Produce Staff|March 19, 2015

Earlier this year, United States Potato Board (USPB) President and CEO Blair Richardson made a request for a nationwide potato-friendly salad bar program at the Potato Expo 2015, which was held in January in Orlando, FL.

Part of the challenge is to install 3,000 potato friendly salad bars in school lunch programs across the U.S., according to a news release from USPB. The goal is to place 300 potato bars per year in elementary, middle and high schools over the next five years.

For every one of those 1,500 salad/potato bars donated by growers, potato industry agribusinesses or others vested in the U.S. potato industry, the USPB will match one-for-one for a total of 3,000 potato friendly salad bars installed by 2020.

The challenge doesn’t end with the donation of a salad/potato bar, the release states. For every donated salad/potato bar installed by U.S. potato industry stakeholders, the USPB will continuously work with school lunch personnel and school district nutritionists to deliver a nonstop stream of potato serving ideas, recipes and themes.

According to the March 19 Potato Bytes News from the Northern Plains Potato Growers Association, the program is now in the testing phase. Two salad bars have been placed into one Denver, CO- area school district. The district reportedly now has salad bars in nine of its 16 schools.