{"id":14497,"date":"2012-10-29T13:29:21","date_gmt":"2012-10-29T17:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=14497"},"modified":"2012-10-29T13:29:23","modified_gmt":"2012-10-29T17:29:23","slug":"a-fruit-or-vegetable-on-every-plate-whether-students-want-it-or-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/10\/29\/a-fruit-or-vegetable-on-every-plate-whether-students-want-it-or-not\/","title":{"rendered":"A Fruit Or Vegetable On Every Plate Whether Students Want It Or Not"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Gina Jordan\/StateImpact Florida<\/p>

Florida is implementing new requirements for kids who buy lunch at school. This tray belongs to a student who liked the pizza more than the healthy offerings.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI hate them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re disgusting.\u201d<\/p>\n

These sentiments are from elementary students around Tallahassee who aren\u2019t fans of their school\u2019s vegetables.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot think that they\u2019re actually real.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur vegetables don\u2019t taste real and they look like green spaghetti.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately, not all of their peers agree.<\/p>\n

Today, kids at Ruediger Elementary School are getting broccoli and bananas on their plates. They have other options, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI take the salad and I take the fruit,\u201d 11-year-old Shaniya Storey said. \u201cI eat most of the carrots off the salad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Federal school meal requirements are being phased in<\/a> around Florida.<\/p>\n

Kids who buy lunch in the cafeteria must take a fruit or a vegetable whether they want it or not.<\/p>\n\nhttps:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2012\/10\/SCHOOLNUTRITION1029.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes if they had broccoli, yeah, I\u2019d eat it,\u201d 5th<\/sup> grader Ja\u2019quan Petersen said, \u201cbut most of the time I would throw it away.\u201d<\/p>\n

School Chef Michelle Ross\u2019 job is to get the kids not<\/em> to throw it away. She creates tastier versions of healthy food, like carrot souffl\u00e9 or her latest experiment \u2013 corn salad.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Gina Jordan\/StateImpact Florida<\/p>

Chef Michelle Ross crafts fancy recipes using vegetables from the garden at Ruediger Elementary School in Tallahassee.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThen I go out and actually ask the kids, \u2018what did you think?\u2019 Ross said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI teach them to not say it\u2019s yucky, it\u2019s icky, it\u2019s gross or anything like that. But what they say if they do not like it is \u2018it\u2019s not to my taste,\u2019 and that\u2019s okay.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the start of this school year, Florida made changes as part of the National School Lunch Program<\/a>.\u00a0 All school menus now feature more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.<\/p>\n

Students are required to take one half-cup serving of a fruit or a vegetable. If they want, they can take both.<\/p>\n

Schools Nutrition Services Director Cathy Reed said kids are given a choice of healthy options.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to force kids to take things that they don\u2019t have to take because more than likely, they\u2019re not going to eat it,\u201d Reed said. \u201cKids will eat usually what they are allowed to take themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act<\/a> led to federal dietary guidelines that are being phased in over the next decade. The standards include limits on sodium, fat, and calories. <\/a>Starting in two years, school breakfasts must also include a serving of a fruit or vegetable.<\/p>\n

Reed said the students still need to be taught why<\/em> their meals are changing, especially since many of them don\u2019t get vegetables at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t see them but in the cafeteria, so how do we get them to eat them? We\u2019ve got to educate the kids that this food is good for them, that they need to select the food, they need to eat the food, and we\u2019re not there yet,\u201d Reed said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Gina Jordan\/StateImpact Florida<\/p>

Students at Ruediger Elementary in Tallahassee grow an assortment of produce in the school garden.<\/p><\/div>\n

Nineteen produce items are being featured in cafeterias right now, according to Outreach Manager Jackie Moalli with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve developed curriculum around certain items that the teachers can use in the classrooms prior to those items being featured that week in the cafeteria,\u201d Moalli said, \u201cbecause research has shown that when children learn about the food that they\u2019re eating, they\u2019re more likely to try it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to studying the foods in class, students may see posters in the cafeteria with pictures and fun facts about the vegetables they\u2019re eating. Some schools even offer food-tastings to try to make it fun, and menu planners try to make the dishes as colorful and appetizing as possible.<\/p>\n

Rick Parks, the state\u2019s lead dietitian, says — just like in fine dining — presentation is important.<\/p>\n

\u201cOften times we look at the bottom line and maybe it\u2019s a little dried out or burnt or something to that effect. \u2018Oh, they\u2019ll eat it,\u2019 you know. Well, would you eat it? So, it\u2019s looking at lots of things, not only the taste, but I think you have to first look at the appearance of the foods,\u201d Parks said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Gina Jordan\/StateImpact Florida<\/p>

Students at Ruediger Elementary School in Tallahassee eat lunches featuring vegetables from the school garden.<\/p><\/div>\n

At Ruediger Elementary, Chef Ross uses lots of ingredients grown in the school\u2019s garden with help from students. She hopes they\u2019ll eventually be able to take home vegetables they helped grow.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen you can have your daughter bring home a bell pepper from the garden that she helped out with. I mean, how encouraging it is for a child,\u201d Ross said. \u201cYou grew this, now we\u2019re going to chop it up and now we\u2019re going to have it for dinner tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ross said inviting kids into the growing process will make a positive difference in their diets.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll have more this week on new nutrition standards in schools.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI hate them.\u201d \u201cThey\u2019re disgusting.\u201d These sentiments are from elementary students around Tallahassee who aren\u2019t fans of their school\u2019s vegetables. \u201cI cannot think that they\u2019re actually real.\u201d \u201cOur vegetables don\u2019t taste real and they look like green spaghetti.\u201d Fortunately, not all of their peers agree. Today, kids at Ruediger Elementary School are getting broccoli and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[1045,1021,1128],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14497"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14497"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14512,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14497\/revisions\/14512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}