Radio Show

healthy snacks can be fun! Kids in nutrition class at Fairview Elementary

Host Intro: Anyone who is a parent is familiar with the age old refrain when we try to get our kids to eat their vegetables?

Jack Actuality: I just hate them, they just are green and horrible?.

Host: With this attitude amongst kids, it?s a real challenge to get
them to eat nutritious wholesome foods. Bombarded with constant advertising for fast foods and sugary snacks, vending machines in schools and even Ronald McDonald teaching kids about nutrition, how do we steer kids towards the right choices for eating what?s best for them.  KGNU?s Maeve Conran discovers how some schools are rising to the challenge of getting kids to eat healthy, in this the first in our weeklong series ?Eat your Greens??

Groups Featured in this report include: University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, http://www.uchsc.edu/peds/subs/nutri/educat/

Also in this Saga

Eat Your Greens 2: Open day at Fairview Elementary	Nutrition education also means educating parents on what's good for kids.
Eat Your Greens 3: In the garden at Fairview Elementary	Right beside I 25 a bustling community garden plays host to children and their families.
Eat Your Greens 4: Back to school at Fairview	Some of the young gardeners have moved on and graduated from Fairview. Will they be able to entice some new ones at the back to school night?
Eat Your Greens 5: The Tri Community Festival at the Fairview Garden	To celebrate a successful growing season, three communities gather to celebrate the Fairview Community garden.
Eat Your Greens Phone in Show	Cathy Romanello of the Integrated Nutrition Program joins Maeve Conran in the studio and Denver Urban Garden's Judy Elliot on the phone

Full Text:

Narration: Miss Hardy and her class of fourth graders at McGlone Elementary in Denver get ready for their last nutrition class of the school year?.

Miss Hardy: ?.who thinks they?re a nutrition expert or a food expert?  

Fades under narration:

Narration: a class full of eager hands shoot up?.these nutrition experts have been learning about healthy eating and nutrition all year through The Integrated Nutrition Education Program.

Actuality: Miss Hardy 2
Miss Hardy: We?ve all worked together cutting, chopping, mixing, frying, you remember all that? Pouring, trying not to spill?and some kids have even learned? they came in at the beginning of the year, the first lesson and said ?Oh yuck Miss Hardy I?m not trying that it?s horrible, I?m not trying that, I hate that?, but you tried it and what happened?

Carlos: They liked it

Miss Hardy: Who learned it when they tried it that had not ever tried that food before?...isn?t that great, so you?ve learned to try foods you?d never tried before?.

Fades under narration:

Narration:  The Integrated Nutrition Education Program teaches elementary school children better eating habits by encouraging variety in the diet. It started in 1993  and is funded by the Food Stamps program, the federally funded food assistance scheme for low income families. . Kathy Romaniello is an instructor in the department of pediatrics at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and coordinator of the Integrated Nutrition Program.
Kathy 1 32 seconds
What we?re hoping to do with this program is first of all is get kids exposed to a wider variety of foods and primarily fruits and vegetables.  Children are eating far less than the recommended five to nine fruits and vegetables a day.  On the average children are eating maybe 2 or 3 fruits and vegetables together total a day.  And the nutritional value of eating fruits and vegetables are really broad.

Narration: Benefits such as reduced risks for heart disease and diabetes are well known, but trying to convey that message with words alone to school children is a losing battle. Instead, the program instills a sense of fun and curiosity about foods by introducing new fruits and vegetables that the children usually have not tasted before.

Kathy 2
34 seconds:
it?s easier to have fun with healthier foods and say ?eats lots of them because they?re good for you? rather than deal with all of the intricacies of ?don?t eat this and don?t eat that? and there?s an underlying assumption that eating more of these particular foods and healthy foods will displace the unhealthy ones.

Narration:
Nice theories, but does it work? Back in Miss Hardys class the fourth graders are making a salad with Kazumi, who designs, tests and writes lessons for the nutrition program?.

Kazumi: And what is this one?

Children: Broccoli?..

Narration: Getting a class full of 10 year olds excited about broccoli may sound impossible, but Miss Hardy has a trick or two?

Actuality: Maeve and Miss Hardy 30 seconds

Miss Hardy: ?they all want to cook so I go ?Who?s the quietest table, you get to cook? so they?re all real excited about it and it?s just determining who gets to help that particular day.  

Narration:Principal Anne Aliwaker explains how the nutrition program has crossed both economic and cultural barriers.

Anne Aliwaker: 25 seconds
my kids don?t get to try a lot of different foods just because of the culture and economic background and so forth, so it just sounded like a great idea that they?d get a chance to explore other things and find out about all different kinds of foods, plus it?d be a chance for teachers to actually work with kids on doing that.

Narration: So what do the kids think?  The salad with lime dressing is a resounding success, with empty plates all around the classroom.

Children Actuality:

I already had seconds, yeah it?s good. My favorite part is when she?s cooking it, it made me hungry and I felt I wanted to eat more and more.

Narration: The children seemed really enthusiastic about the nutrition classes they?ve been doing all year.  Jose says he was dubious about some of the foods at first, but now he even cooks some of the recipes at home.

Jose: I felt like some of the foods were nasty but once I tried them they were good and now I make them at home because I have a recipe?..that?s all?.

Narration: Everyone was on their best behavior the day I visited the school, and everyone told me that they loved eating vegetables, but then I delved a little deeper?..

Grace: I like to eat chocolate, lots of chocolate, I wish the whole place was pancakes and chocolate?.
I would like a bag of hot cheetos and chocolate and candies?.

Narration: The Integrated Nutrition Program has a hard fight to battle against the fast food makers who target elementary school children with their kid friendly advertisements and food promotions. But with the national center for health statistics telling us that 16 percent of American children and adolescents are overweight , it?s an important fight.   But what happens once the kids go home, away from the influence of teachers and nutrition classes and is it really possible for us to change kids eating habits? Tune in  for the next installment of eat your greens?..