Leave It Better has found a way to get kids excited about eating fresh vegetables

[SoCalDem]

.This WORKS.. when my three boys were small, we had a garden, and each had "his own" rows of veggies and his own "hill" of melons. These little guys eagerly weeded, watered and lovingly picked
"their" veggies. I still remember a squabble royale once when Mike ate Scott's cherry tomatoes:rofl:



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http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Making-a-difference/Change-Agent/2011/0725/Leave-It-Better-organization-gets-kids-excited-about-veggies-through-gardening



By Rachel Signer, Dowser.org / July 25, 2011

“Can I have seconds on salad, please?” is not something middle-schoolers ask everyday. Most kids prefer the high-fat, low-nutrient tastes of foods like French fries or pizza to anything leafy, green, or fresh.

But one organization, Leave It Better, has found a way to get kids excited about eating fresh vegetables by teaching them to grow produce from seeds. The program gives kids an activity that enhances their hands-on knowledge of earth science, and also lets them take pride in the accomplishment of consuming something that they, not some distant factory, produced.

Last fall, Leave It Better constructed gardens in ten schools and worked with students to plant and harvest lettuce. Alongside the gardening lessons, the kids learned about composting with worm bins - and later used their own compost to grow greens.

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[snagglepuss]

1. Fantastic idea. Thanks for posting. nt

[tridim]

2. I always find it odd that Pizza is always considered junk food

If you make it homemade, with wheat flour, olive oil, tiny bits of cheese and fresh (garden) veggies it's perfectly healthy and 10 times better than the crap the grocery store sells.

[K8-EEE]

4. Unfortunately most people don't eat healthy homemade pizza

But the greasy, doughy, pepperoni and sausage laden variety from fast food chains, with stuff like "stuffed crust" or a side of hydrogenated oil to dunk the crust in or whatever!!

Last night we made pizza on the bbq, we got one of those pizza stones recently and it works great! We also put green onion, basil, tomato from the garden it was delish....

[DesertFlower]

5. i agree. nt

[SoCalDem]

6. homemade pizza is not hard to make either

people get scared of dough that must rise, but it really is not a big deal once you try it.. The secret is to make it on a cookie sheet with sides.. You can make a really big pizza & freeze a lot for later..

[CTyankee]

7. The best pizza I have ever eaten was one with sliced tomatoes on it.

Simple.

I once had a pizza margherita in Turin that was exquisite in its simplicity. At a little eatery, nothing special...they just know how to cook over there...sigh...

[SoCalDem]

8. We had one of those pizzas in Cicero, Il

crust, cheese & sliced tomatoes.. yummmmmmmy.. a little basil & oregano too probably:)

[tridim]

14. Parchment paper works even better.

Dough making is really easy (as I'm sure you know). If you're lazy you don't even have to knead it that much.

Mix it all up, knead for a minute, put in oiled bowl, rise for 45 minutes, flatten on parchment and top.

I spend a bit more time on my dough because I care about flavor and texture. It's still easy though.

[SoCalDem]

15. When I was lazy, I would even use english muffins

as the base:)..the kids loved the "mini-pizzas"

[LWolf]

9. That bears no resemblance to the pizza served

in school cafeterias.

School cafeterias? The goals:

make sure everyone is getting plenty of calories, since breakfast and/or lunch may be the only whole meal they get

keep it economical...so the quality automatically goes down

make sure kids want to eat it...if enough people don't buy school food, the cafeteria can't support itself

Those 3 add up to cheap ingredient, high-fat, high-calorie junk

School cafeteria pizza:



When I first started working in public education, in '02-'03, my first school still had a kitchen that actually cooked fresh, non-processed food every day. These days, working kitchens aren't used, and newer schools don't build working kitchens, since the food is trucked in pre-prepared or only needing warming up in a warmer.

That is, slowly, beginning to swing back, with a few districts around the nation trying to go back to fresh, local food, cooked fresh daily. The bottom line? Providing food that students will eat, adhering to nutritional guidelines, and being able to afford to buy the food, pay people to cook it, wash the dishes, etc.. To make the effort sustainable, it has to be funded.

[CTyankee]

10. There was real "class warfare" in my grandson's school in California.

On one side there were parents who wanted better food. The other side said the food was fine as it was. It got ugly.

[LWolf]

11. I believe that.

Some will always oppose any attempts by the government to feed people. Some will oppose any improvements that might cost more $.

Then there is the poverty factor. Those whose families have always subsisted on bad food because it's cheap don't see the problem.

[CTyankee]

12. Well, partly...they don't think they'll get anything better.

It is also a "power play." Us against them.

Here's the background: this school was nearly fated for closing due to lack of enrollment. The school got entreaties from some German parents in the city wanting a German immersion class for their kids. The concept was expanded to include Spanish and Italian (my grandson is in the Italian class), attracting in parents who just wanted their kids to become bi-lingual. This brought in a whole new group of kids and their parents. The original parents were primarily Hispanic. They didn't care too much for the changes that the "new" parents were bringing in. They even wrangled with the Spanish speaking parents of the Spanish class (they weren't from the same countries as the original parents group and thought they were stuck up. Also the original parents wanted English only for their kids, which they also had). It got into a kind of "we were here first!" type of argument...

[LWolf]

13. sigh.

How unfortunately predictable.

Immersion programs are terrific. I think our nation would be better off if we were all multilingual Culture comes along with language, though, and inevitable culture wars. :(

[Kingofalldems]

3. Kick and Recommend.

[seabeyond]

16. i would always cut up veggies small and put in spag sauce, taco meat.

kids never knew

[SoCalDem]

17. My homemade ham & beans has about 2 lbs of pureed carrots

mixed in..makes the color great and no one knew they were eating carrots and more carrots:)

also my onion-hating boys never knew that my beef & noodles had pureed onions in it:)

and my beef stew had pureed turnips in it:)

[seabeyond]

18. yup yup yup, lol. nt