Healthy Central Sierra
Article

Veg the Vote!

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Through a Harvest of the Month seasonal produce initiative, the CalFresh Healthy Living-UC program, school staff, Barton Health, and parent volunteers promote food literacy in all four elementary schools in Lake Tahoe Unified School District (LTUSD). As part of LTUSD's Local School Wellness Policy, this farm-to-school initiative aims to increase K-5 student familiarity with healthy produce items and their nutritional value through monthly cafeteria produce tastings paired with nutrition education about featured produce, including videos, handouts, and gardening activities. After students get a taste of the featured produce, they are asked to vote on whether they like the featured fruit or vegetable, and the vote results are usually announced school-wide. During 19 cafeteria tasting events in 2018-2019, K-5 students sampled 4,461 tasting portions of 7 total items, including kiwis, radishes, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, grapefruit, beets and snap peas. Across all tastings, 57.1% of votes were cast for “Liked It,” 19.4% for “Okay,” and 23.5% for “Not Today.” Also, a pre-post cafeteria food waste assessment of baby carrots served in two elementary schools found an average 40% reduction in carrot waste per student served after carrots were featured as Harvest of the Month. This information shows that many Lake Tahoe Unified School District students are happy to eat healthy fruits and vegetables when they're available in cafeterias.