Grow it, pick it, eat it

By Alsy Acevedo
AACEVEDO@CITIZEN-TIMES.COM

January 16, 2007 12:15 am

ASHEVILLE - Radishes, eggplants and okra might not sound as appealing to children as Pop-Tarts or Oreos.

But more and more Western North Carolina children are trying these foods at school and liking them, thanks to a variety of projects developed by Growing Minds-Healthy Bodies.

The program is a partnership between Children First of Buncombe County, Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project and MANNA FoodBank that seeks to teach children how to choose fresh produce over processed food in order to help prevent children overweight.

"It's a scary thing that our children think our food comes from the grocery store," said Emily Jackson, project coordinator for ASAP.

That's why the organization created school garden programs in seven elementary schools, as well as farm field trips.

"Look! Do you know what this is?" asked Susan Cooper to her kindergarten students holding a leaf she picked from the Emma Elementary School garden. "It's spinach. Who wants to try it?" Everyone raised hands.

The children learn about how seeds grow in the classroom and the garden serves as their laboratory. As soon as they pick the radishes, lettuce and spinach they grow in the garden, they try them, Cooper said.

"(I like) carrots because they taste good," said Jake Travaglini, 6. "The next thing I like is broccoli and corn."

According to ASAP data, children who learn to grow their own food build an appreciation and a taste for fresh food and for those who grow it.

"Kids will pretty much eat whatever they grow from themselves," said Shelley Booth, Growing Minds-Healthy Bodies coordinator.

Healthy choices

Children First encouraged the introduction of fresh locally grown produce to community food pantries, such as squash, eggplants and greens.

"Just because it's there doesn't mean people know how to use it," Booth said.

So they also organized 39 cooking demonstrations, teaching 2,280 children and 340 adults how to prepare healthy food from Jan. 2004 to Dec. 2006.

"Some of the adults were a little pickier, but the children were very enthusiastic and willing to try new things," said Laurey Masterton, who hosted several cooking classes at her restaurant, Laurey's: Catering and Gourmet to Go, on 67 Biltmore Ave.

Masterton recalled the time when kindergarteners, first and second graders at Isaac Dickson Elementary School went to her restaurant for a cooking class. The day before, they had visited Flying Cloud Farm in Fairview and learned how okra, basil and kale are grown. So she included those ingredients in the cooking class, teaching the children how to fix a fennel, tomatoes and basil pizza. She also had okra samples featuring fried, boiled, pickled and fresh okra.

"They loved it. They ate everything," Masterton said.

The purpose of introducing children to locally grown produce is that they will incorporate them into their diet in the long term.

"One of the parents told me that she went with her children to the grocery store and they asked for okra," Masterton said.

For those children whose parents don't have enough resources to buy groceries regularly, MANNA FoodBank developed the Backpack Program. Every Friday volunteers pack 6 to 8 pounds of fresh produce, snack items and personal care products and deliver them to five elementary schools, said Beth Stahl, Education and Youth Services coordinator for MANNA FoodBank.

In the past two years the program provided more 700 children with 41,040 pounds of fresh produce to take home to their families. MANNA also and handed out 48,283 recipes so clients could learn how to cook fresh produce in a healthy way.

Overweight children are a big concern

According to Growing Minds-Healthy Bodies data, 36 percent of Buncombe County students in kindergarten through fifth grade are overweight or at risk for becoming overweight.

At a national level, the percentage of overweight children doubled in the past two decades and the percentage of overweight adolescents tripled, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"The CDC says that one out of three Caucasian babies born in 2000 will have diabetes before they graduate from high school," said Chef Ann Cooper in a luncheon at Isaac Dickson Elementary last week. "What we feed our children is actually making them sick."

The author of "Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children," has been developing strategies to include "regional organic seasonal sustainable food" in school cafeterias since 1999, but said infrastructure, human resources and monetary issues difficult the changes.

Cooper, known as the Renegade Lunch Lady, said she's looking forward to see children's health as a priority issue in the next presidential race.

"Six-year-old children don't decide what to eat," Cooper said. "So it's our responsibility."