Forget Major League Baseball trading cares—SLO Farmer trading cards are now all the rage!
The cards are part of April’s Let’s Move SLO, a campaign launched by a coalition of local organizations called HEAL-SLO, which has partnered with the SLO County Public Health Department to fight childhood obesity by getting communities moving and living healthier lifestyles.
As part of the campaign, the Central Coast Ag Network introduced the trading cards to classrooms through its Farm to School program. A grant from SLO County Community Foundation helped create 50,000 trading cards featuring 10 different Central Coast farmers to help educate children about eating healthfully and locally.
The cards are being used at four schools—Oceano, Pacheco, and Monarch elementary schools, and Lillian Larson School—as incentives for increased physical activity, as part of nutrition lessons, to raise awareness about local farmers, and more.
“I handed the cards out to kids when they came to the farm for tours. When the kids received them, there was always a positive response,” Jerry Rutiz of Rutiz Family Farm said in a press release. “For me, it’s a form of advertising and a way of making a connection to the farm.”
With farmer trading cards, Let’s Move SLO! is encouraging community members to get out to local farms and enjoy healthy foods.
For more information about Let’s Move SLO!, or other healthy living initiatives, visit HealSLO.com.
This article appears in Apr 12-19, 2012.
