California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross is on the Central Coast this weekend. She spent Friday afternoon at the Food Bank Coalition of San Luis Obispo County's facilities in Paso Robles.
The Secretary was there to make a donation of 6500 pounds of food on behalf of a social media campaign aimed at helping feed the food insecure.
Ross is urging people to post online photos showing locally grown fruits and vegetables with the hashtag #CAGROWN. For every post to a public social media site using that hashtag, one pound a food will be donated to local food banks through a partnership with growers.
The secretary told KCBX that she's very impressed with the food bank operations in Paso.
"What they're really doing is some very innovative programs," said Ross. "They're not just about calories, they're also about nutrition."
Ross says the focus is on fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables. She says she was also impressed with the number of young people participating in the program.
The secretary will be at Sunset Savor the Central Coast's main event this weekend in Santa Margarita continuing her California Grown campaign, along with a push for state agritourism as well.
