New video series teaches kids how to eat healthy
Oregon students, do you know where your food comes from?
If not, the Oregon Department of Education and Oregon State University’s Extension Service can help.
The department’s Child Nutrition Programs and OSU Extension’s Food Hero campaign have teamed up to launch a new, 50-part video series on Oregon Harvest for Schools, which educates students on healthy, Oregon food. The videos will be released monthly for the next few years.
The first video chronicles a young student’s passion for her favorite lunch: salad greens from her school garden.
The vignettes will encourage young viewers to develop healthy relationships with Oregon-grown food by presenting a diverse group of students, farmers and adults harvesting, preparing, cooking, and serving Oregon-grown foods.
“Simply offering healthy food is not enough. When students learn about their food, they eat it and make lifelong healthy choices. The more they understand, the healthier they eat. We need to help students know where their food comes from,” said Rick Sherman, Farm to School and School Garden Coordinator for ODE. “The video series allows students to see how whole fruit, veggie and other food groups come from the farm and end up on their cafeteria tray. And then they can learn about it in their classroom and see it on their cafeteria tray. It could change their eating habits for a lifetime.”
The video launch is a capstone to the National Farm to School Month which celebrates food education, school gardens and lunch trays filled with healthy, local ingredients.
