Diocesan schools receive Fruits and Vegetables Grant

By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
November 17, 2005

Schools in the Diocese of Sioux City are part of the Fruits and Vegetables Grant. Le Mars Gehlen Catholic School, Holy Cross - St. Michael Center in Sioux City and Kuemper Catholic Grade School in Carroll have all been among the 12 schools in Iowa to be selected to participate in the grant.

The grant, which is co-sponsored by the Iowa Departments of Public Health and Education, is designed to provide students in grades kindergarten through 12 additional tasting opportunities of fresh fruits and vegetables at no charge.

Le Mars Gehlen Catholic School is one of the schools in Iowa to be selected to participate in the grant for 2005-2009. They started their program on Nov. 7.

Lisa Niebuhr, development director at Gehlen, pointed out that during the first morning alone the students consumed over 300 lbs. of fruits and vegetables by noon.

There are a variety of times during the day in which students may participate in the grant. From 7 to 8:20 a.m. each day, students are able to go to the cafeteria and choose from the selection of fruits. An expanded fruits and vegetables line will be available during lunch.

"We had a salad bar before but it is now expanded to include more tastings of vegetables and fruits that every student can have," said Niebuhr.

Snack carts will be available from 8:30 a.m. to the start of 8th period for junior high and high school students and during the afternoon for elementary students. All of the carts are closed down at 2:30 p.m., noted Niebuhr.

Also coaches and moderators will be given an opportunity to have fresh fruits and vegetables available for some of their co-curricular activities. Students are then able to have something during or after practice as well.

"Plymouth County exceeds the national average as to the number of children who are obese," said Niebuhr. "It is due to nutritional deficits as well as a lack of physical education. This is one way, in collaboration with Lighten Up Le Mars, and what we do in our physical education classes, that we can be able to help children address obesity."

She continued that 4.3 percent of the people under the age of 18 in Iowa are obese.

"By tackling childhood obesity, hopefully we can delay the onset of obesity when children become adults," said Niebuhr. "By giving the students the right choices - before school, during the day, after school - we hope that they will pick up these great habits so that when they go home and are hungry they grab a fruit instead of a candy bar."

The hope is that the program will teach the students new habits and help them expand their pallets, stated Niebuhr.

"We hope that they take these habits home," said Niebuhr. "We hope it is something they pass on to the rest of their family."

Niebuhr mentioned that from observations, so far, parents have seen that kids are eating better and teachers have noticed that students have been more attentive.

Holy Cross - St. Michael Center has had the grant for the last few years and is using up the rest of the funds from the grant this year.

According to Shelly Barkley, one of the school cooks, the grant was not renewed this year for St. Michael Center and the money from the grant will most likely run out by about December.

The students get fresh fruits, vegetables and juices each day for a snack. There have also been a few fruit and veggie fairs that the students participated in.

The fairs presented the students with fun ways to eat their fruits and vegetables. For example, they had ants on a log - celery with peanut butter and raisins. There was also a fair with frozen bananas dipped in chocolate and frozen grapes as a cool summer snack.

The grant also provided the fruit for grandparents day and kindergarten roundup.

Barkley believes this is a good program for the students because "the children get something to eat. It makes them learn better just being full. It is a good snack. It teaches them that it is simple to just go grab a carrot or an apple to eat."

"The kids love it," said Barkley. "There are some things they like more than others. Their favorites are grapes and pineapple. They get a variety of everything. They did try star fruit but didn't like it because it was too sour."

Kuemper Catholic Grade School in Carroll is in its second year of having the Fruits and Vegetables Grant. Mary Dobson, principal at the grade school, noted that the grant is through Dec. 31 of next year.

In the kindergarten through third grade building, there is an afternoon fresh fruit break. A person from food service takes a cart to each room for the students to have fresh fruit.

The fourth and fifth grade students receive their fresh fruit in the morning because they eat a later lunch.

"We talk about healthy foods. If it is a new fruit or vegetable, our food service director will take the fruit to them and let them take a small sample of it so when it comes later in the week they know whether they want it or not," said Dobson. "They unbelievably will try things that are coming in. It started with a chart - how many are we trying? Now most of the time the kids want it no matter what it is. They want to try it."

Dobson pointed out that sometimes it is thought that students will not like a certain thing or if something is healthy the child will not choose it. At Kuemper, the students are choosing fresh fruit over a lot of other things anymore.

"I think it is obvious to all of us - teachers and staff - that children truly will eat food that is good for them if they are given an opportunity to have it," said Dobson. "Fresh fruits and vegetables can't be beat and they will pick it every time."