Let’s Move Salad Bars 2 Schools

Posted By elissa on Jun 25, 2011 | 1 comment

Despite his high profile, Jamie Oliver isn’t the only well-known chef involved in reforming US school lunch programs. The “Renegade Lunch Lady,” Ann Cooper is another.  She’s the author of 4 books on foods, nutrition and cooking, and has been featured in prominent magazines, newspapers and news programs.

What drew my attention to her today was a hot-off-the-presses interview published in the journal, Childhood Obesity, dicussing, among other things, her work to transform school lunches in the Berkeley Unified School District and – now – Boulder Valley School District.

One of Cooper’s initiatives is the Food Family Farming Foundation, which is working on two projects: The Lunch Box – an online portal with tools and tips for school districts – and Let’s Move Salad Bars 2 Schools – which provides grants to schools for salad bars.

Why salad bars? Because choice rulz… kids are more likely to eat their veggies when they have a variety of items to choose from.

Both academic research and actual experience in schools across the country are increasingly demonstrating that school children significantly increase their consumption of fruits and vegetables when given a variety of choices in a school fruit and vegetable salad bar. When offered multiple fruit and vegetable choices, children respond by trying new items, incorporating greater variety into their diets, and increasing their daily consumption of fruits and vegetables.

…Many school districts are either unaware of the benefits salad bars can bring to their students, or have been unable to afford the basic equipment needed to adopt this strategy. The powerful health benefit that can come with a modern, food-safety compliant salad bar is too often blocked by the prohibitive capital cost in many school districts. Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools is creating the opportunity make change.

This is definitely an initiative I can get behind. So far 728 salad bars have been granted and 461, 529 kids served, but that’s just a start. Ultimately, the goal is to fund 6,000 salad bars over the next 3 years.

I just donated $25.00.  Click here if you’d like to do the same!