By Kate Rugani | Director of Development and Communications
“I like these sweet potatoes more than macaroni!”
True statement from a kid at Durham's Lakewood Elementary School this past spring. But it's not exactly something you would expect to hear from the average elementary school student. Seeing as 9 in 10 NC children do not get the recommended amount of vegetables in their diet, such a ringing endorsement seems even more unlikely.
However, thanks to your gift to Farmer Foodshare, our Food Ambassadors program is opening more kids' eyes to just how amazing fresh, local produce can be.
This summer, we brought on Hunter Holbrook, a master's student at UNC-Chapel Hill's Gillings School of Global Public Health to help us prepare for the cafeteria taste tests that we will be conducting in 20 Durham Public Schools this fall. Hunter conducted a review of the factors affecting food security in the area and surveyed cafeteria managers and school administrators to identify potential barriers and facilitators to incorporating more fresh food using the Food Ambassadors program.
When we're back in the cafeterias for taste tests later this month, Farmer Foodshare will pick up where we left off last spring: sharing with pre-K - 5th graders about the NC-grown vegetable that's available to them on the school cafeteria menu that week, sourced and delivered by Farmer Foodshare's Wholesale Market. They'll get to hear about how it's grown and its nutritional benefits. They'll also sample it and vote on how much they like the taste. To reach 20 schools this fall, we'll head out twice a week, bearing samples of collard greens and spinach, sweet potatoes and kale, among others. If you're local to the Durham area and want to volunteer, please do!
A new twist for this fall: a tray waste study! Over the summer, Hunter built out an evidence-based method for evaluating the impact of the Food Ambassadors program - because getting kids to choose more fresh food is only valuable if the actually eat it. We'll be measuring how much food makes it into kids' bellies and how much is wasted -- all of which will help us strengthen the program going forward while helping Durham Public Schools make more informed buying decisions.
Stay tuned for more anecdotes from the kids in future reports. If you're hungry to read up on Hunter's learnings from the summer, you're in luck -- his summary and his full assessment are posted to our website.
Cheers!
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