Kitchen Gardeners International: Advocates push for homegrown school lunches

Getting up close and personal with a homegrown tomato could help combat the high incidence of childhood diabetes and obesity nationwide. So says Dan Desmond, an advocate for garden-based education, a growing national movement to teach children healthier eating habits by exposing them to fresh fruits and vegetables.

By Walter Yost -- Sacramento Bee Staff Writer

"There is a crisis in childhood health, and it's focused on a lack of nutrition," said Desmond, an adviser with the University of California Cooperative Extension.

While Desmond credits nutritionists and teachers with providing students with an "intellectual knowledge" of nutrition, he maintains that improving young people's eating habits requires something more hands-on.
"I think this problem will demand radical solutions," he said.

Working under a Food & Society Policy Fellowship from the Kellogg Foundation, Desmond is taking his campaign for more school gardens and farm-to-school programs to school food service directors.

Such strategies could play a larger role in schools with this week's release of the federal government's new Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005. The guidelines, which recommend 2 1/2 cups of fruits and vegetables daily, form the basis for the federal school lunch program, which subsidizes most school cafe terias.

Although some food service professionals are skeptical about the practicality of his ideas, Desmond points to successful real-life examples, such as an edible schoolyard in Berkeley and farm-to-school salad bars in the Ventura Unified School District.

Closer to home, Desmond mentions the Davis Farm to School Connection, which in the past few years has helped bring farm-fresh vegetables and fruits to eight elementary schools in the Davis Joint Unified School District.

"There is no question that the farm-to-school design is a challenging one that will require hard work and, in some cases, additional resources," Desmond said. "But the cost to continue with a food system that doesn't encourage healthy dietary habits will be much more in the long run."

Last year, state schools chief Jack O'Connell held a press conference about what is being served in California's school cafeterias.

O'Connell said that children who eat school lunches are healthier than children who don't. But he added, "Too many students are still eating fast food, too many students are eating highly processed foods, and the fat content of too many meals is simply too high."

Last week, Desmond pitched his ideas to several El Dorado County food services directors gathered in the faculty lunchroom at Ponderosa High School in Shingle Springs.

While they said they agreed with his ideas in theory, they pointed out the financial realities of running a school cafeteria.

Purchasing fresh fruits and vegetables from small farmers or growing them in a school garden for use in a cafeteria costs more than purchasing them as bulk commodities.

"A cafeteria is a different animal than a restaurant, said Lorrie Griffin, food services supervisor at Ponderosa High. "It's got to be cost-effective."

In the Folsom Cordova Unified School District, food services director Al Schieder has been lauded for eliminating the sales of all foods having little or no nutritional value - including junk food, sodas and a la carte items such as french fries and chips - and implementing Nutrient-Based Menu Planning at all grade levels.

Schieder, a former restaurateur, said cafeteria sales have increased, and his department is making a profit instead of losing money.

Schieder said edible gardens and farm-to-school programs may be good teaching tools, but their use is limited by geography and financial concerns.

"I'd ask: What would kids in Lake Tahoe do?" Schieder said. And most schools, he added, can't afford to buy fresh fruits and vegetables from small farms.

Schieder's food service program, like many across the country, is regulated and subsidized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The majority of lunches in the district's cafeterias, he said, are served to needy students, and the federal reimbursement rate is slightly over $2 per meal.

Desmond and his supporters, however, aren't about to concede Schieder's points without rebuttal.

Schools in harsher climates, like Lake Tahoe, can utilize indoor grow-labs and greenhouses during the winter, Desmond said.

As for the cost issue, Jeri Ohmart with the UC Davis Children's Garden program said funding for salad bars that serve farm-fresh fruits and vegetables can be a problem.

"The biggest cost is the food preparation, not the food itself," she said. But Ohmart said numerous grants are available to schools from sources such as the Kellogg Foundation, the California Nutrition Network and the USDA itself.

Sandy Van Houten, director of child nutrition services with the Ventura Unified School District, has developed a successful "farm-to-school salad bar" program in just three years.

It started with one farmer selling tangerines and avocados to one school. Now 30 local farmers and 18 schools take part.

"We have farmers growing crops just for us," Van Houten said.

She contends the best way to get students interested in fruits and vegetables is to provide the freshest foods possible, "not the stuff in shrink-wrapped packages," Van Houten said.

Source: The Sacramento Bee

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Posted by KGI on January 24, 2006 3:51 PM to Kitchen Gardeners International
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