News

Monday, November 9, 2009

Harvest of the Month at La Cumbre Junior High School

For the fourth year, students at La Cumbre Junior High School will be tasting a fruit and veggie treat each month. This year October meant pears and Harvest of the Month offers kiwifruit for November and persimmons for December. Science teachers engage students in a brief lesson while the tastes are supplied by a partnership with a Santa Barbara County Public Health Department program called Network for a Healthy California with support from the La Cumbre PTA.

“It's been a wonderful adventure to expose students' palates to new fruits and vegetables every month,” said Jo Ann Caines, La Cumbre’s principal. “The collaboration with Susan Horne [Santa Barbara County Public Health Department] and the science and art classes, plus the cafeteria, has been a nutritional win-win for everyone, and we never anticipated such excitement from teenagers over tasting vegetables and fruits.”

A seventh grade art class practices their techniques on the fruit or veggies and their art has brightened the walls of the cafeteria, stopped crowds at the hallway display case, and decorated the cover of the annual Community Health Status Report 2009 by the county public health department. Rounding out the Harvest of the Month, the cafeteria serves it at lunch, often on the salad bar.

Last year’s favorites were apples and mandarins. Also, 82 percent said they looked forward to Harvest of the Month in the May 2009 survey of over 200 students. One student even wrote down that since she tasted persimmons for the first time at Harvest of the Month, she and her mom now buy them to eat at home. That is the goal, more fruits and veggies and less chronic disease.