Columbia News Service, 12/01/2005 - VIEW IMAGES
Programs Sprout on Working Farms to Help Kids Fight Obesity
In September, kids visiting a farm in New Jersey picked tomatoes, basil and cilantro, then cooked fresh pineapple salsa brightened with the vegetables and herbs they had harvested. The children smelled turmeric and saffron and tasted honey while they learned about the value of loading their plates with red, green and yellow natural foods.
In California, schoolchildren and their parents visit a farm every season to pick fresh fruits and vegetables. In a field-to-fork program, they cook and sample the strawberries, broccoli, kale and pumpkin they’ve harvested. The children's school has added a salad bar, teachers instruct students in how to fill a plate with salad ingredients, and the principal now hands out pea pods as treats.
Both of these programs strive to fight childhood obesity by helping children lead more healthy lives and reconnecting them with the land as a source of food and pleasure.
“We can’t wait for science to catch up before we take action to fight against childhood obesity,” said Jamie Bussell, a program associate at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in New Jersey, which is embarking on a 10-year initiative to help families make healthy choices. “It’s one of the most pressing public health issues facing our country, children and future.”
The number of children who are overweight has tripled over the last 20 years, and the most recent national health survey suggests that the number is continuing to increase. About 9.8 million kids, ages 5 to 19, are overweight, according to Dr. Keith Ayoob, director of the nutrition clinic at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. Overweight children are at higher risk for heart disease and diabetes and are also likely to mature into overweight adults who face increased health risks.
The farm-based programs in California and New Jersey both sprouted to address the problem of obesity. In California, families participate through their children’s kindergarten through eighth grade school. The program includes all 250 children in the school and is funded by a grant. In New Jersey, parents enroll their families in HealthBarn USA and pay for the program themselves or their children visit the farm on field trips with schools or clubs.
Stacey Antine founded HealthBarn USA in partnership with Abma’s Farm in Wyckoff, N.J. She wants to lure kids away from foods filled with artificial ingredients and trans fats and steer them to more natural foods. She wants to discourage them from sitting in front of TV screens and guide them into a more active connection with the soil and seasons.
“I believe that if children and families have the right tools based on accurate information in the right environment, then they will be receptive and in control of making smart choices for their health,” Antine said.
Antine gets to the core of HealthBarn’s message when she invites 6- to 11-year-olds to become “supermarket spies” and hunt for natural foods. Two kids peer through extra-large magnifying glasses and read labels on food packages. One child easily reads aloud “California strawberries,” but the other spy stumbles over the long list of artificial ingredients in a strawberry fruit roll-up. Antine reinforces the lesson when she cooks kid-friendly fresh foods with the children and when she meets with their parents, usually their mothers, weekly.
“You can’t blame the kids,” Ayoob said. “I’ve never seen kids who eat a better diet than their parents.”
Antine surveys the families’ eating patterns both before they start the basic 12-week program and after they finish it. The follow-up surveys show that the children are eating more fresh fruits and vegetables and more whole grains and calcium-rich foods, and they are avoiding sugar in food and drinks. All of the children who have enrolled in the program since its inception last spring have maintained a healthy body weight or have lost weight.
“It’s been life changing,” said Vilma Gotay, a mother of three whose family enrolled in HealthBarn USA. “I grew up in the Bronx, and I knew nothing about farming or vegetables. Now we’re all green.”
The kids at HealthBarn USA love the farm and farm work. They like to dig in the soil, use a hoe, rake, shovel or spade, plant spinach and herb seeds, hunt for worms and grasshoppers, and check the ripening colors of the pumpkins and tomatoes.
“It’s great because a lot of them don’t get any exposure to nature anymore,” said Sonja Radovic, the mother of a fourth-grade son.
Across the continent near San Diego, children from the Pauma School have similar experiences on the organic farm of the Tierra Miguel Foundation. The foundation received a one-year $50,000 grant from the California Endowment Fund to introduce a pilot program at the school, which has mainly Hispanic and Native American students, two population groups considered at very high risk for obesity and diabetes.
“We’re seeing 10-year-olds who weigh 200 pounds,” said Charlene Orzsag, a founder of the Tierra Miguel Foundation, “and almost every family has a member who is pre-diabetic, if not diabetic.”
The Pauma kids not only visit the farm with their families seasonally, but also with their classmates during the school year. Like their New Jersey peers, they enjoy the farm and farm work. They requested broccoli and apples for the school’s salad bar. They drink more milk and less soft drinks now.
“Going back to basics sounds so simple to others,” said Liza Oprandi, who participated in the HealthBarn USA program with her daughter. She said she used to feed her three children mostly frozen or ready-to-microwave foods before her family’s conversion to a healthier lifestyle. “But when you’re as far gone as I was, it was a drastic change in living.”
In California, schoolchildren and their parents visit a farm every season to pick fresh fruits and vegetables. In a field-to-fork program, they cook and sample the strawberries, broccoli, kale and pumpkin they’ve harvested. The children's school has added a salad bar, teachers instruct students in how to fill a plate with salad ingredients, and the principal now hands out pea pods as treats.
Both of these programs strive to fight childhood obesity by helping children lead more healthy lives and reconnecting them with the land as a source of food and pleasure.
“We can’t wait for science to catch up before we take action to fight against childhood obesity,” said Jamie Bussell, a program associate at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in New Jersey, which is embarking on a 10-year initiative to help families make healthy choices. “It’s one of the most pressing public health issues facing our country, children and future.”
The number of children who are overweight has tripled over the last 20 years, and the most recent national health survey suggests that the number is continuing to increase. About 9.8 million kids, ages 5 to 19, are overweight, according to Dr. Keith Ayoob, director of the nutrition clinic at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. Overweight children are at higher risk for heart disease and diabetes and are also likely to mature into overweight adults who face increased health risks.
The farm-based programs in California and New Jersey both sprouted to address the problem of obesity. In California, families participate through their children’s kindergarten through eighth grade school. The program includes all 250 children in the school and is funded by a grant. In New Jersey, parents enroll their families in HealthBarn USA and pay for the program themselves or their children visit the farm on field trips with schools or clubs.
Stacey Antine founded HealthBarn USA in partnership with Abma’s Farm in Wyckoff, N.J. She wants to lure kids away from foods filled with artificial ingredients and trans fats and steer them to more natural foods. She wants to discourage them from sitting in front of TV screens and guide them into a more active connection with the soil and seasons.
“I believe that if children and families have the right tools based on accurate information in the right environment, then they will be receptive and in control of making smart choices for their health,” Antine said.
Antine gets to the core of HealthBarn’s message when she invites 6- to 11-year-olds to become “supermarket spies” and hunt for natural foods. Two kids peer through extra-large magnifying glasses and read labels on food packages. One child easily reads aloud “California strawberries,” but the other spy stumbles over the long list of artificial ingredients in a strawberry fruit roll-up. Antine reinforces the lesson when she cooks kid-friendly fresh foods with the children and when she meets with their parents, usually their mothers, weekly.
“You can’t blame the kids,” Ayoob said. “I’ve never seen kids who eat a better diet than their parents.”
Antine surveys the families’ eating patterns both before they start the basic 12-week program and after they finish it. The follow-up surveys show that the children are eating more fresh fruits and vegetables and more whole grains and calcium-rich foods, and they are avoiding sugar in food and drinks. All of the children who have enrolled in the program since its inception last spring have maintained a healthy body weight or have lost weight.
“It’s been life changing,” said Vilma Gotay, a mother of three whose family enrolled in HealthBarn USA. “I grew up in the Bronx, and I knew nothing about farming or vegetables. Now we’re all green.”
The kids at HealthBarn USA love the farm and farm work. They like to dig in the soil, use a hoe, rake, shovel or spade, plant spinach and herb seeds, hunt for worms and grasshoppers, and check the ripening colors of the pumpkins and tomatoes.
“It’s great because a lot of them don’t get any exposure to nature anymore,” said Sonja Radovic, the mother of a fourth-grade son.
Across the continent near San Diego, children from the Pauma School have similar experiences on the organic farm of the Tierra Miguel Foundation. The foundation received a one-year $50,000 grant from the California Endowment Fund to introduce a pilot program at the school, which has mainly Hispanic and Native American students, two population groups considered at very high risk for obesity and diabetes.
“We’re seeing 10-year-olds who weigh 200 pounds,” said Charlene Orzsag, a founder of the Tierra Miguel Foundation, “and almost every family has a member who is pre-diabetic, if not diabetic.”
The Pauma kids not only visit the farm with their families seasonally, but also with their classmates during the school year. Like their New Jersey peers, they enjoy the farm and farm work. They requested broccoli and apples for the school’s salad bar. They drink more milk and less soft drinks now.
“Going back to basics sounds so simple to others,” said Liza Oprandi, who participated in the HealthBarn USA program with her daughter. She said she used to feed her three children mostly frozen or ready-to-microwave foods before her family’s conversion to a healthier lifestyle. “But when you’re as far gone as I was, it was a drastic change in living.”