TodayHealthy eating topic of the day at Elmwood Elementary School
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Article RatingAmong votes for a new kid-friendly version of the wildcat and the mascot’s new name, students at Elmwood Elementary School in Mechanicsburg were also thinking about what type of meal should win the National School Lunch Week competition.
That debate, however, took second stage to the multiple guests Wednesday at the fifth-graders’ lunch.
Department of Education Secretary Gerald Zachorchak and Cheryl Cook, deputy secretary of marketing for the Department of Agriculture, visited the elementary school to talk to the kids about healthful eating and exercising.
“Developing a food and exercise routine when they’re young will make it easier later on,” Zachorchak said. “We want to catch them early.”
Part of the reason both government officials decided that National School Lunch week is important, especially now, is the high percentage of kids who are obese.
“If you talk to anyone from the health world, which should be all of us, they’d tell you the rate of childhood obesity leading to diabetes is alarming and is projected to be worse,” Zachorchak said. “Children are just not paying enough attention to what they’re eating. They need to combine healthy eating with healthy exercise.”
Karin Marlin, food service director, has been attempting to change the obesity trend with the Fruits and Vegetables Program and teaching kids how to choose better and healthier alternatives.
“Every day we have a different vegetable or fruit provided,” Marlin said. “I’ve noticed that the kids actually prefer fruits and vegetables. They always ask me when they’re having pineapples. They’re very aware of what they’re eating.”
With an overwhelming support for pineapple from four fifth-graders, the kids reflected the goal of the program, all knowing that they should be eating healthier and more than willing to do so.
“We learned to eat more fruits and vegetables,” said Nicole Stanton, 11. “We should stay healthy and stay active.”
Tyler Dearment, 10, agreed, although he couldn’t help adding, “I learned that tomatoes taste really bad.”
The somewhat positive reactions and the adherence to state food guidelines is a reason why Elmwood Elementary was chosen to host Zachorchak’s talk.
“We heard about the work the local food service director, principal and teachers were doing and their interest in the Fruits and Vegetables Program,” Zachorchak said. “They’ve been offering healthy choices, kids have recess twice a day and they are growing and harvesting their own garden. The school seems to be very sensible about balancing school traditions with healthy eating and healthy living.”
Focusing on local food
The elementary garden gives the school some local food that it may not get otherwise. However, that is something that both the district and the state want to change.
“We’re interested in local food,” Cook said. “We want the kids to know that we’re the fifth-largest dairy producer, and the school does buy local milk. We want them to eat their fruits and vegetables and know that it’s good to have strawberries, but it’s even better to have local strawberries. Those that are shipped to us from California two weeks after they’ve been picked have already lost a lot of the vitamin C, so the ones from Pennsylvania taste better and are better for you.”
The school has been handing out fruits and vegetables from local producers, including apples Wednesday afternoon to John Green’s second-grade class.
The first-hand involvement from students is what Marlin says makes the program successful at the school.
The students have even been producing stick figure candidate commercials for three meal choices -- Biff Burger, Pippa Potato and Patty Mac’n’Cheese. While Joseph Panuccio, 10, did not produce any mud-slinging commercials for the morning announcements, he did manage to make two candidates have a different accent -- Pippa with a western twang and Patty with proper English.
“When kids do something, they really listen,” Marlin said. “Sometimes when it’s just an adult, they don’t hear what we’re saying, but they really remember when they’re involved. They make it a little funny and it gives it more meaning to them.”
Elmwood Elementary will finish the week with a final vote on the meal choices. The winner will be announced Friday.
