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Brain food

Schools that put nutritional literacy on the program

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Originally published in Today's Parent September 2010

It used to be that school lunches were the land of peanut butter sandwiches, foil-wrapped hot dogs and Wagon Wheels. Fast-forward to today, and you’ll find nutrition and wellness-based snacks and breakfast and lunch programs on many school menus as a way to feed their students’ bodies and minds.

Check out these five schools that have turned their meal programs around and added a healthy kick to them.

Winchester Junior and Senior Public Schools
Ten years ago, enrolment levels were dropping at downtown Toronto Winchester Junior and Senior Public Schools, and as a result, portables supporting the school were removed. Suddenly, things became clear — much clearer in fact. “When the portables came out, all of a sudden the neighbours had a sightline that they didn’t have before, so they organized to reclaim the space as a naturalized garden,” says Sunday Harrison, executive director of Green Thumbs Growing Kids in Toronto.

Harrison, who was operating an after-school gardening program in the neighbourhood, joined the initiative to help create what is today an 11,000-square-foot plot of garden space that includes plant beds, a learning circle and approximately 500 square feet of food production. Fruit and vegetable crops, including potatoes, garlic, cucumbers and spinach, grow with the help of Green Thumbs and the students.

As part of their involvement, children regularly eat what’s grown in the garden and turn over the rest of the bounty to the school’s twice weekly salad bar. “The produce goes directly into children’s mouths from the garden, or it’s used to prepare into meals,” says Harrison. “We’re all about encouraging that tasting and developing a palate for fresh foods for the children.”

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