This year, another Colorado school district will join the growing national movement to bring fresh vegetables from school gardens into school cafeterias, directly onto the plates of the students who grew them.
Just four years ago, only a few schools in the country were doing this. But after Denver Public Schools worked with Slow Food Denver to create food-safety guidelines, the garden-to-cafeteria movement is spreading across the country, and the DPS food safety protocol is now a national model. By May 2013, four states and the District of Columbia had laws to ensure that produce from school gardens could be served in school cafeterias, according to the nonprofit ChangeLab Solutions.
“The kids are really excited about it,” said Emily O’Winter, healthy schools coordinator at Jeffco Public Schools, which tested pilot programs at four of its schools last year. “They’re so proud. At the salad bar, they look for their tomatoes from the garden.”
Experts say the trend is rooted in a convergence of events: the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 that targeted childhood obesity; new USDA nutritional requirements that fruits and vegetables be served daily at school lunches; and the growth in consumer demand for foods grown locally.
At first, the idea of serving vegetables from school gardens in school cafeterias was so novel that some school districts wouldn’t allow it, pushback that was “primarily a misunderstanding about food safety policy and rules,” said Andrew Nowak, the Denver-based director of the national school garden program for Slow Food USA. “People thought kids can’t do this because they can’t handle a harvest and handle food safely.”
Now, demand is growing faster than basil.
This spring Nowak — who worked with the Denver Department of Environmental Health to pioneer the DPS food-safety protocols — spoke on a panel about overcoming obstacles to the garden-to-cafeteria movement at the National Farm to Cafeteria Conference.
“The room was packed,” he said. “People were sitting on the floor wanting to hear about these protocols, and how school districts were buying (vegetables) from school gardens.”
In Denver, it all started in 2010 while Congress was still debating the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. Leo Lesh, then director of DPS Food and Nutrition Services, decided to convert all school kitchens to scratch cooking, and also ordered 85 salad bars for DPS cafeterias.
“The need for produce increased so much, and Steele Elementary ran out of produce, but they had a garden,” recalls Anne Wilson, farm to school coordinator for DPS.
Lesh, wondering if that garden’s produce could be used in its salad bars, called Nowak at Slow Food Denver to ask if that was possible. Finding few examples in the nation, Nowak worked with local health officials to create food-safety protocol for a garden-to-cafeteria program at DPS.
That protocol is now available at all county health departments around Colorado — a template that school districts throughout Colorado can customize.
The general principle remains the same: Students are paid for their crops, with the money going back into the program to help make it sustainable. In Denver, students grew more than 4,500 pounds of vegetables and earned more than $5,260 since 2010.
But it’s not about the money.
Studies show that hands-on gardening, in combination with nutrition education, are an effective way to change children’s attitudes about eating healthy foods: A 2007 study of sixth-graders showed they increased their consumption of fruits and vegetables by 2½ servings a day, more than doubling their overall consumption.
Bringing this food to the table is added enticement.
“Last year we grew Sun Gold tomatoes that are very sweet, almost like candy,” said Jamie Humphrey, dietitian for Colorado Springs School District 11. “They said, ‘Oh, gosh, that tastes a lot different from what’s in the store.’ “
She oversees more than 100 raised beds in the garden at the Galileo School of Math and Science, which this year is expected to yield 5,000 pounds of vegetables.
“We’re trying to expand their palate and try new things,” said Humphrey. “Beets and kale are not as popular as lettuce, tomatoes and bell peppers.”
In Weld County, at least four schools have garden-to-cafeteria programs.
“It’s definitely a win-win,” said Rachel Hurshman, wellness specialist at Greeley-Evans School District 6.
The school gets another way to promote healthy eating, and the kids — who’ve worked hard to get things to grow from seeds — are more willing to explore adventures in eating.
“It takes a kid 11 times to decide if they like a food or not,” she said. “The more we can get them to try it, and buy into the process, hopefully the more vegetables they will eat in the future.”
Colleen O’Connor: 303-954-1083, coconnor@denverpost.com or twitter.com/coconnordp
