A Salad Bar in Every School: Helping Kids Choose Veggies

Ever since Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution took over a Huntingdon West Virginia’s elementary school to teach students about nutrition, consumers along with large corporations have been paying more attention to the way Americans, especially children, eat.

Dole Food Company is no exception and this summer, they have launched an initiative to place fifteen salad bars in schools throughout the North Carolina, California and Washington D.C. areas in partnership with the United
Fresh Produce Association.

Their Salad Bar in Every School campaign is meant to help foster healthy eating habits in children today. The schools receiving the bars – Woodrow Wilson Elementary School and Jackson Park Elementary School – will also receive free children’s materials such as Superfood posters and bookmarks, the popular Dole 5-A-Day Kids Cookbook and the new Dole SuperKids Activity Book to help sustain nutrition education programs.

“Studies have shown that children who regularly consume fruits and vegetables perform better in school, are sick less often, have a lower risk of asthma and even have a lower chance of developing cancer later in life,” said Dr. Nick Gillitt, Director of the Dole Nutrition Research Laboratory. “The Dole ‘Salad in Every School’ program helps ensure America’s children start healthy habits early in life and continue them into adulthood.”

The United Fresh Foundation’s campaign is based on the involvement of nutrition education leaders to serve as demonstration models for increasing children’s fresh fruit and vegetable consumption. These demonstration projects will then assist school nutrition professionals, principals and teachers, parent groups and community supporters in working with local, state and federal government officials to bring salad bars to all schools.

What kinds of fruit and vegetable options are available in your kids’ schools?