Students at Hickory High School in Hermitage, PA are learning how food is grown thanks to a new vegetable garden in their school courtyard.
This spring, the school district’s food service director and Green Team adviser discussed the possibility of an on-campus garden. They knew the garden’s bounty could be used in the school cafeteria and home economics classes. Home Ec. students could tend to the compost pile and learn how to can produce. Students would be able to help plant vegetables, see their food growing, and help harvest it. They could learn how local gardens reduce our carbon footprint and provide food that doesn’t have to be transported thousands of miles from farm to table.
With the help of a community garden group, an Eagle Scout candidate and Boy School troop, the High School Green Team and faculty worked together to build, prepare and plant four raised vegetable beds, six blueberry bushes and a butterfly garden with perennials. Planting the garden with people of all ages, young and old, was a wonderful experience!
It Is not school luches that makes these kids over weight they can not tell me a slice of pizza and a half cup of corn , and a sald will make these kids over weight. There is nothing wrong with food stamps but being able to buy all of the junk food they want with food stamps is America’s problems. I am a cook in the school systems and i am sick and tired of them putting the blame on us because they need more exercise.
It’s equally unfair to blame food stamps. Not all recipients of food stamps and free meals are sedentary junk food hogs, and plenty of overweight, unhealthy kids are from families who can well afford better quality, healthy, organic food but choose not to through ignorance or laziness.
All I know is the kids are not getting fat in my cafeteria. The new portion sizes are so small the kids are starving by the time they get home from school. Thats when they overindulge on junk food and empty callories!! We actually have less fruits and vegetables than we did before. we are not even allowed to offer salads as an entree any more. Oh but popcorn chicken and chicken nuggets are Ok. It’s not even real chicken just ground up and pressed back together, tell me thats healthy. Way to go USDA!
If our kids ate breakfast they wouldn’t be starving by 11am. 50% of all students still do not eat breakfast and of those that claim they ate breakfast most had a pop tart,high sugar breakfast bar or other low nutrient /low protein breakfast. The only place we get it right is in elementary schools where the kids are fed a balanced breakfast .The program of having bag breakfast in schools is a great concept : remember when kids brought a peanut butter & jelly sandwich, white milk ( no added sugars)along with some carrots or celery sticks with that oatmeal cookie as a treat… now schools sell 300 calorie chocolate chip cookies ,along with HFCS loaded chocolate milk kids pass up the healthy options that are offered .middle school madness ,”middle school 20″ I called it as we saw kids that gained 20 lbs. a year for 3 years ,going into high school 60 pounds overweight … and that was 6 years ago in Orlando Florida schools! any better today??? still out of control!education is the key to changing student behaviors and limiting competitive foods.” Food for people not for profit” our Nutrition Action required text back in 1976 !Celebrate National Food Day Oct 24 with some in school Healthy Food Activities and get rid of the chicken nuggets, original school lunch menu was pea soup with potatoes & carrots so nutritious ,low calorie & low cost “oh how far we’ve come” in 66 years. Professor Q