UC Researchers Find Farm-to-School
Programs Shift Students' Diets
If given a choice of fresh fruits and vegetables, children will
eat them, according to a University of California study.
New dietary guidelines issued recently by the federal government,
which now recommend nine servings of fruits and vegetables daily
compared to five servings in previous directives, have left parents
and school food service directors wondering how to get kids to eat
all that produce.
Data compiled in school lunch programs may help them, according
to Gail Feenstra, food systems analyst at the UC Davis-based statewide
Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (UC SAREP).
Feenstra's study compiled hundreds of images of lunches chosen
by elementary students at farm-to-school salad bar programs in the
spring of 2004 that show children prefer fresh fruits and vegetables.
"When a variety of fruits and vegetables is offered, kids
take them," she said. "This is most true when options
are fresh," she said.
In the last five years, farm-to-school salad bar programs have
taken root at many school districts across the country, Feenstra
said. A related benefit is the increase in purchases from small-
and mid-sized farms in the local areas, she added.
"As programs appear, we often hear the claim that children
will reject fresh produce," she said. She and UC SAREP program
assistant Jeri Ohmart and graduate student Melissa Salazar of the
UC Davis School of Education took photos of lunches children choose
at school.
"Our initial data suggests that, when presented with fresh
fruits and vegetables in a salad bar format, children readily choose
them," said Ohmart.
 But
what exactly do kids choose? Seasonal fruit favorites were strawberries,
cherries, melons and grapes, while the preferred seasonal vegetables
were carrots, lettuce mix, red bell peppers and cherry tomatoes.
Researchers saw that kids take more fruits and vegetables from
the salad bar than the USDA hot lunch minimum.
"We also found that choice and variety are important dimensions
of meals, for both health and social development," said Ohmart.
"The most common reason kids said they preferred the salad
bar was that they could choose their food."
The Davis Joint Unified School District began implementing a farm-to-
school salad bar program in 2001 that includes gardening, nutrition,
education, on-site recycling and farm tours.
The district's cafeterias have salad bars stocked with seasonal
produce from local farmers, Feenstra said.
"During this time, we have seen total district produce purchases
more than triple, from $13,000 to more than $42,000, with 38 percent
coming from local growers," she said. "Children's access
to fresh produce has definitely increased."
Feenstra and Ohmart began the study during the fourth year of
the Davis program when student nutrition services director Rafaelita
Curva was faced with questions about what the children were actually
taking from the salad bar.
The researchers took more than 850 digital images of student lunches
in Davis and the nearby rural community of Winters.
"The pictures showed us the amounts and kinds of food the
kids were choosing," Ohmart said.
Using USDA minimum serving requirements as a baseline, they calculated
for each plate the amount of protein, amount of fruit and vegetables,
number of choices of fruit and vegetables, and number of bread servings.
Servings of croutons and ranch dressing were also evaluated.
"We saw that children are taking more fruits and vegetables
with a salad bar model," Feenstra said.
Source: UC Davis Sustainable Agriculture
Research and Education Program.
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