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Farm to Preschool: The Next Step in Growing Food-Concious Kids
Ellen Sabina | Tuesday 29th December 2009
 Farm-to-School has been cropping up in schools all over the country, providing stale cafeterias with fresh, local produce. Such programs have many benefits, but basically the idea is that connecting schools with local farms will make kids eat healthier, in a time when childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions.With farm to school, kids not only start eating more fresh fruits and vegetables, but also become more food literate, learning how to make good food choices and where food comes from. With the success Farm-to-School has had in many elementary schools, it surprises me that there aren't more programs starting before children are in elementary school, during the critical early years. By the time children reach preschool they have already formed eating habits based on what they are fed at home. Introducing healthy food in early childcare and education, as well as food education programs for parents, addresses nationwide problems of poor nutrition closer to the root, and can work towards reconnecting our country with real food. Although some private preschool programs already incorporate healthy, local food into their snacks and meals, not all preschools can afford to do so, particularly public, non-profit programs. It is heartening that within the past year or so, a few farm to preschool initiatives have developed pilot programs to target underserved early childhood education centers. As in many elementary and middle schools, farm to preschool aims to do more than just incorporate more local fruits and vegetables into meals. Age-appropriate nutrition and health curriculum is served up alongside blueberry yogurt smoothies and root vegetable soup, as are trips to local farms and farmer's markets. Some preschools may even be lucky enough to have their own garden plots. Ideally children would also be involved in food preparation. Amazingly, kids who take part in the growing, harvesting, and cooking of otherwise unpopular vegetables are much more likely to eat them. A teacher at a local public preschool in Burlington, Vermont recently told me how every single child in her classroom ate the organic brussel sprouts that they picked in their garden and cooked for lunch. Brussel sprouts?! Who knew that the key to creating peace between children and the longtime dinner plate nemesis might be to simply engage them in the process of producing and cooking vegetables? Of course even if farm-to-preschool programs succeed in sourcing food from local producers, introducing you children to real, sustainable food, farms, and cooking, a big part of changing the way kids eat depends upon changing what's being dished up at home. For kids to get one or two nutritious, fresh meals a day is a huge step forward, but if they still go home and eat highly processed food, real change is not likely. I do think that starting farm to preschool will help to get kids really hooked on healthy food and become more aware of what they're eating and how it helps their bodies work and grow. But I also think more attention should be focused on the parents as well. Occidental College's Center for Food Justice has the right idea, incorporating parent nutrition classes and workshops with bilingual doctors into their farm to preschool pilot program. Helping parents and caregivers better understand what their kids need and why fresh fruits and vegetables are so important for children is imperative to turning the tide of childhood obesity, among other problems. In a perfect world, all families would support and be able to access local, sustainable, nutritious food. We've still got a long way to go before that world becomes a reality, and to work towards it we need to expand the scope of programs like farm to school to include younger children and, by extension, their families. Developing and continuing such programs will lead to a brighter food future for America, and help to create a new generation committed to local sustainable food. |
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Jessica Collins 12 February 2010 Hello, I am so happy to see this. We have a pilot program as well in Springfield, MA. Five preschools have come together to form a co-op to purchase local produce from the Pioneer Valley. It's been wildly successful as well.
-jessica.collins@bhs.org |
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About the Author
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Ellen Sabina Is blogging |
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