Nueva lower
school students
work in the
campus garden.
Extracurricular, after-school
and summer camp programs
offer immersive, fun, hands-on
opportunities in which students
COOK, GARDEN, learn about and
practice HEALTHY EATING.
August/September 2018 65
tor and Science Specialist at Nueva School.
Her elementary and middle school courses
include pre-K to first-grade children who participate
in Science in the Garden. “I connect
classroom curriculum to the garden. What
does ecology look like? They do surveys of
pollinators, look at interaction between lizards
and their environment, learn scientific observational
skills. They do field sketches and
communicate data in presentations to the rest
of class.” In eighth-grade classrooms, discussions
deepen to include organic and GMOfree
agriculture, food distribution chains and
socioeconomic topics related to food.
Options that allow students to enjoy recess in the garden and
a one-week enrichment course known as Farm School spark
lunch trends, Fieberg asserts. “A lot of these kids didn’t used to
eat vegetables at lunch, but in the garden, they harvest it and eat
it all. When it’s tied to nature, to their creating it, they love it.”
Tasting kale, chomping on collard greens or gulping down edible
flowers in the garden result in innovative, student-designed
entrees like one student’s vegetable- and flower-filled raw tacos, as
one example. Student initiatives have also led to an on-site mini
farmers market that raised funds for a charity dedicated to food
access for underserved communities.
A PEDIATRICIAN’S PERSPECTIVE
While students rely on parents and schools to educate them about
healthy eating and its impact on learning, adults turn to pediatricians
and online resources for reliable information. With humor
and a degree of trepidation, pediatrician, author and founder of
Root Cause Medical Clinic Dr. Vikki Petersen offers guidance.
“Lunch programs get stipends from certain agencies such as milk
and beef producers, and therefore those products are a focus of
school lunch programs when they are unhealthy,” she explains
via email.
Across her patient group, she says kids still eat too much unhealthy
food because it’s “cool.” Better informed children receive
the most and best guidance from parents, not schools. Peterson
would like to see less fast food imitations and fewer high sugar
items on school lunch menus. Her ideal nutrition guide would
be the British chef and restaurateur Jamie Oliver, author of “Feed
Me Better.”
Still, she says, it all starts at home. “If parents are making a supreme
effort to feed their children healthfully and educate them,
that will spill over into the child's decision-making.”
Since that child of today will be the parent of tomorrow, it
follows that smart nutritional choices will affect generations to
come, in and out of the classroom. As these schools demonstrate,
including students in that decision process at all levels helps to educate
their bodies as well as their minds. It improves their changes
of leading a healthier life and passing along valuable wisdom. n