How about (I’m serious) having a whole day field trip to vegetable and fruit farms so the kids can see them on the vine, bush, tree, etc. Have the kids pick the veggies and fruits, wash and prepare? Send what they pick home. Hands on would be a great way for them to learn about where it starts and ends with fresh produce. fwiw good for California making insulin.
I did that when I was a in middle school. Back then, there were several U-Pick'em farms still left in Broward county.
“There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace.” -Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac