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Students Adopt Spinach For Nutrition Program

The California Nutrition Network celebrated its 10-year anniversary this month with a meeting last week in Sacramento where it showcased the Hayward Nutritional Learning Community Project as a successful program that encourages youth to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables.

The CNN funds programs - such as 5 a Day Power Play! and the Bay Area Nutrition Network - that promote a healthy diet and physical activity, particularly among low-income families. CNN now funds nutrition programs from Alameda to San Diego using in-kind contributions from state and local governments that qualify for federal financial participation dollars from the Department of Agriculture's food stamp program.

We showcased progressive and innovative programs (at the meeting)," said Joe Prickett, director of the Bay Area network. "Hayward is a model for other cities, counties and also other states

The Hayward nutrition project works with schools to integrate nutrition into the curriculum from seed to consumption. "Hayward has a neat program of working with kids," Prickett said. "The idea is to get kids excited about fruits and vegetables. They wanted to integrate the classroom with the cafeteria, with the garden and with the cooking."

Some participating schools are Burbank, Cherryland and Harder elementary schools, and Tennyson High School. The Hayward nutrition project offers programs such as Harvest of the Month, where a new fruit or vegetable is featured and the students can taste and learn how to cook them.

The idea is that the learning community will focus on nutrition and reduce obesity in Hayward," said Chris Boynton, Hayward nutrition project coordinator. "The kids love it, and once they connect to their food and understand what it's all about, they eat that food

The Hayward nutrition project is part of the 5 a Day Power Play! program and works mainly with elementary school children. Nutrition is incorporated into subjects such as math and science by making students grow their own vegetables and measure progress in the garden. "We do things like weighing the garden harvest and lots of coordinate grid work," said Boynton. "Lots of measurements, because measuring is one of the low test scores in Hayward."

In one second-grade classroom at John Muir, the students were so involved in nutrition that they hung posters reading, "Don't you want more fresh vegetables?" protesting the large amount of cheese on pizza. "We have had a lot of success; I don't know where to start," Boynton said with a laugh. "Let's just say that the kids are stealing spinach from the salad bars."