School food program bears fruit

Forget the schoolhouse warnings about not eating in class. At Shaw Middle School, students are told to eat in class. Even their homeroom teachers are asked to snack so students will be encouraged to nibble.

Each day there’s a fresh basket of fruit for all classrooms. Then there’s more free produce in the lunchroom.

Thanks to a new state grant, students started getting daily doses of additional fruit and vegetables in October. Shaw is the only school in District 81 to be awarded the year-long grant.

Statewide, 25 schools were selected.

The grant provides about $340 a day for fresh produce.

“I was honestly concerned about having food in the classroom,” Shaw Principal Christine Lynch said last week.

“I have not had one single complaint about the fruit in the classroom. Not from a teacher. Not from a custodian.”

Deer Park Middle School landed the same program last year, but it will end in January.

“We definitely would have loved to have it again this year,” said Deer Park Superintendent Mick Miller.

The program is for one year. Schools are free to apply a second time.

No one knows for sure the exact impact of the program, but Miller said that for whatever reason students scored better on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, and there were fewer disciplinary actions.

He is convinced there’s not a direct correlation between fruit and performance, but he knows the snacking sure didn’t hurt.

The only drawback was discovered at the end of the school year when some fruit stains were discovered on the carpet. That was a small price to pay, Miller said.

Lynch said she had never heard of the program and happened to come across it while looking through the grant opportunities at the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction Web site.

She contacted Doug Wordell, district director of nutrition services.

He asked her to write up a plan. Wordell helped write the grant for the North Side school.

The school nutrition director works with Green Bluff growers to supply some of the fruit.

Rick Roening, president of the Green Bluff Growers Association, helps teach students about the background of each of the supplied foods.

Students are receiving apples, oranges, bananas, strawberries – when they’re in season – grapes, broccoli, carrots, celery and even kiwis.

Students also will be offered a field trip to pick produce and learn about agricultural careers.

What’s clearly a hit is the fresh fruit in class.

“I walked into the lunchroom and had 20 kids thank me for writing the grant,” Lynch said.

That’s never happened to her before, which alone tells her this grant is very cool.