FRESNO, Calif. — The school district in Turlock, surrounded by fields and orchards in one of the nation’s richest agricultural regions, used to get much of the produce it served to students from national distributors who shipped fruits and vegetables from outside California.

But, starting in August, student meals have featured apples, peaches, nectarines, plums and oranges from farms only a few miles away — with the help of a new online company that connects local farmers with school districts.

California-based Ag Link allows school districts to communicate with nearby farmers and buy their produce with the click of a mouse. It’s helping the Turlock district and others meet new federal rules requiring more fruits and vegetables in school cafeterias to help prevent childhood obesity.

“The quality and selection we’re seeing coming right from the farms is incredible,” said Scott Soiseth, director of child nutrition for the Turlock Unified School District. “Children get to eat the product that’s picked that same morning.”

The new rules require among other things that schools provide students at least a half cup of either a fruit or vegetable during lunch and at least a half cup of fruit during breakfast. And they must be served a wider variety of fresh produce every week, including leafy greens and red-orange vegetables.

Online companies, cooperatives and organizations helping connect local farmers and buyers have cropped up in recent years. Now these so-called food hubs are facilitating relationships between farmers and school districts.

The Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association, a nonprofit cooperative that trains new organic farmers in Salinas, Calif., is working with the Santa Cruz City Schools to coordinate orders and deliver produce. The district, with 13,000 students, purchases more than half of its produce from local farms.

In Vermont, a company called Green Mountain Farm Direct distributes a list of products, coordinates orders and delivers produce to half a dozen schools and other institutions.

And Oregon-based FoodHub, an online networking and marketing platform that connects food producers, buyers, and suppliers in Oregon, California, Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho, has been increasingly working with school districts looking to buy local, said director Amanda Oborne.