KENNEBUNK — “Yuck” may be the first word that escapes a child’s mouth when faced with consuming fruits or vegetables, but Regional School Unit 21 nutrition staff have found a way to side-step students’ tastebuds to get healthy foods into their stomachs.
A determination to think of creative promotions for nutritional eating and exercise has led to the four elementary schools in the district winning bronze awards in the HealthierUS School Challenge.
“Your habits are what you learn when you’re young,” said Ellen Demmons, RSU 21’s food services director, inside Sea Road School’s cafeteria Thursday as fourth grade students lined up for their lunch.
Sea Road School joined Kennebunkport Consolidated, Kennebunk Elementary and Mildred L. Day schools in receiving the awards from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service program.
HealthierUS School Challenge, a voluntary initiative established in 2004, recognizes schools participating in the National School Lunch Program that have contrived healthier school environments. First Lady Michelle Obama incorporated the initiative of 2,161 schools nationwide into her Let’s Move! campaign in 2010, according to the HUSSC website.
Demmons submitted an application to the Food and Nutrition Service last year containing the RSU’s lunch menu with each food’s ingredients, as well as a list of imaginative exercise activities integrated into physical education and other classes.
According to a 2011 study released by University of Southern Maine Muskie School of Public Service professors, Maine’s rural, low-income children are at the highest risk for obesity. The research said 32 percent of rural Maine children are obese, compared to the national average of 28 percent.
For those students and others, RSU 21 cafeterias combat their chances of becoming overweight by limiting heavier foods and allowing children to eat as many fruits and vegetables as they wish.
“Everybody’s so busy nowadays,” said Ginny Burrows, manager of the Sea Road School cafeteria. “People often think it’s easier just to go to McDonald’s or Burger King.”
Burrows and Nutrition Assistant Marcia Jackson said they attempt to convince students that fruits and vegetables are just as delicious as other foods. As another tactic, both mash down veggies into sauces, soups, chili and anything else that will disguise them.
“It’s no longer a process of opening things and putting them out,” said Jackson, noting that she strives to advocate good eating habits.
A tool that’s been an important in promoting proper diets is Maine’s Let’s Go! obesity prevention program. Within this program is the 5210 plan, which advises children to have five or more fruits and vegetables, two hours or less of recreational screen time, one or more hours of physical exercise and zero sugary drinks per day.
Partnering with other nutrition staffs in York County for the program, Demmons and other school officials suggest changes to each other’s school menus and what works in getting students to eat better.
Children are also taught to take care of their bodies through indoor and outdoor workouts.
“They don’t even know they’re exercising,” said Diane Dyer, physical education teacher at KES, who assembled the physical wellness portion of the application, during a phone interview on Thursday.
Dyer said some students don’t enjoy sports, so teachers try to “throw everything at them” until they find an activity they do like.
One program offered is a “story walk,” where stations are scattered outside KES with two pages of a book available for children to read, and various workouts taking place in between each reading. Teachers take their students on the walks during classes as a break from classwork, in addition to other activities such as yoga, dancing and sitting on bouncy balls instead of chairs while learning.
On what the schools could improve upon, Demmons said she would like to see all recesses happen before lunch to avoid students being distracted while eating or during class. With just more than 20 minutes to eat a plate of food, students don’t have much time to let their thoughts wander toward what their friends are doing outside.
This time constraint can make things difficult for cafeteria workers who try to promote healthy eating. Every second counts for them to explain to students the benefits of each nutritional food.
Demmons is not discouraged though, since, she said, more parents are teaching their sons and daughters to think about what they eat.
“It’s becoming a slow cultural change,” Demmons said.
— Staff Writer Matt Kiernan can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 326 or mkiernan@journaltribune.com.
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