| Activities which may encourage youth to eat more fruits and vegetables
Participate in the NY Harvest for NY Kids Week
Let kids see where their food comes from:
Visit a farm, an orchard or dairy
Visit a Farmer’s Market
Compare markets to a grocery store
Teach the Food System-how does food get from farm to table?
Invite farms to the School
If you can’t travel out, then invite a farmer in. NY Farm Bureau can help.
Host an agricultural event such as Ag-Stravaganza Days in Cortland (other counties have similar events). Ask for help.
Plant a School Garden
Themes are fun--Pizza Garden, Colonial Gardens, Native American Crops, Medicinal Herbs, Birds and Butterfly Gardens
Benefits--PRIDE, OWNERSHIP, APPRECIATION, EXERCISE
Thinking, Planning, Moving-gardening is work!
KIDS GROWING FOOD
resources are available for help.
Incorporate Agriculture into the disciplines
Example Cooking-directions, reading, math, writing, social studies
Ag in the Classroom and Cook Shop have planned activities. Help is available and resources are numerous.
Teach Nutrition
Let kids plan menus, develop recipes.
Have older kids help plan cafeteria menus.
Get cooking.
Get creative
Think seasonally-Highlight a Fruit or Vegetable of the Month.
Replace a non NY product with a NY product (ie bananas with apples).
Develop recipes that kids like (veggie pizza). Share them with others.
Network with other schools-What have they tried? What’s working?
Build on projects that are underway-potatoes, carrots, apples, pears.
Provide forms easy for kids to eat
What might be the barriers? Missing teeth, braces, little hands
Carrot and Celery Sticks, Cucumber Slices, Apple Wedges
If you can’t provide the labor for this cutting, can the distributor source this? Can the processor create this?
COMMUNICATION IS KEY
Offer a salad bar
What can be added that kids might not have tried? Chickpeas for example.
Include a rainbow of colors of both fruits and vegetables
Set a good example
What are you snacking on?
Eat lunch with your kids if possible, talk about what you eat
Alternatives Which May Need To Be Considered:
Are vending machines turned on only after the last lunch? State laws are often not enforced. What’s in the Vending Machines?
How are we meeting the demands of Student Athletes?
What’s being served at after school activities? Meetings?
Cafeteria Timing-10:00-2:00 LUNCH times need improvement
Does your HS or JH allow snacking?
FRUIT WAGON?
run similar to a school store, by students for students
Apples for Education-like Box tops for Education
Repeat Exposure
Accept a Learning Curve for preparing recipes and for acceptance
5-15 times are numbers provided before acceptance
Must plan for waste and loss
Source Locally
What farms in your County? District?-CCE, Pride of NY & others
Talk to your distributor
Remember the True cost of Cheap Food
Pay now or Pay later-Explanation needed to tax payers
Obesity and Related Health Problems in the Long Run
Employment--1 of 5 jobs is agriculturally related (20/100), 1 farmer feeds 100; therefore by supporting 1 farmer you support 19 other jobs
Food Security-You know where your food comes from. Supporting local farms now will increase the chances that you won’t have to depend upon someone else (perhaps in a foreign country) to feed you!
Quality, Nutrition, and Safety-all increase the closer to home you can purchase your food
Landscapes-What do you want to look at?
Rural COMMUNITY--
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