Flavor, Full

The Solution

Crumbs trail from a piece of half-eaten banana bread on the coffee table separating Rebecca and I. Stella asks her mother if she can have the rest. “No,” Rebecca says calmly. “We’re taking it home for your sister.”

At home, Stella’s father cooks the meals for the family of five, but outside of home, research says that 50 percent of a child’s calories are gotten in school during the school year.

“That’s why it’s the culmination of my career,” says Cooper, reflecting on the youths she’s tasked with feeding.  Her experience as a chef and author of Bitter Harvest about how food makes us sick readied her for the day she was offered a job as the director of food and wellness at BVSD. It’s been four years since she’s taken over the program. Today, Cooper is in charge of 200 employees working out of three kitchens to serve more than 29,000 students—one of them being Stella, who like many children, opts to buy her lunch at school.

The district doesn’t serve anything with high fructose corn syrup. There are no trans fats, no chemicals, no dyes. BVSD also puts a priority on local procurement, sourcing food from Sisters’ Pantry, Colorado Tortilla Co., and Udi’s, among others.

A new outlook on health is changing the way other schools put food on the table. Running River School in Lafayette has older students help prepare the organic meals served at lunchtime. Alexander Dawson School contracts Sage Dining Services to run their food program. What was once hot dogs, hamburgers and chili mac ’n’ cheese casseroles, have been replaced with balanced meals offering one meat, one protein, two fresh vegetables and one vegetarian item daily, as well as a salad bar. Cooper says it’s one way all schools can offer an inexpensive, healthier option.

The salad bars at BVSD were given to the school through Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move Salad Bars into Schools program. It’s the most popular item on the menu, “because kids have choices.” In fact, due to its popularity, purchases of produce have gone up 400 percent. To cut back on cost, whenever possible the school uses vegetables fresh from their own garden.

“Our school has a garden,” Stella says, looking up from playing with her sister. “Some grades rinse, some grades pick, some grades get off all the stems. Last year we planted lettuce. When it got to the salad bar I was like, ‘Wow! We planted this, it tastes good.’”

But despite Stella’s visible enthusiasm—a symbol of the program’s success—Cooper says there’s one area where most programs fall short. “It’s really important,” she said, “to get the parents involved.”

MEND

When the government wanted people to stop smoking, they didn’t market to parents. They marketed to  kids. The same is true for when they wanted people to start wearing seat belts. Kids are impressionable and they bring home what they learn. But kids can’t cook. They can’t drive. They can’t do the grocery shopping.

Getting the parents involved is the mission of a class given at the YMCA of Boulder Valley where instructor Evelyn Vélez-Aguayo asks a question in Spanish about food and nutrition: “Is more always better?”

Yodalia Castillo, a mother and the most outspoken of the group, offers her opinion: “Cheaper” she chides, and the room fills with knowing laughter.

The class is called MEND—Mind, Excercise, Nutrition, Do It!—a free program offered at YMCAs nationwide that meets for two hours twice weekly for two months to help overweight children and their parents implement healthy eating and activity into their lives. It’s how I first learned of Stella. She completed the course a year ago with her mother.

“I was amazed at how comprehensive the program is,” Rebecca said. “How well thought out it is, how effective it is.”

Most of the children attending MEND were referred by their pediatricians. All are overweight, and all must attend with a parent or caretaker. While weight is the issue, it’s not the topic of conversation. As Vélez-Aguayo passes out cups marked by measuring units, the students call out answers about portion size. Parents and children are instructed about nutrition together, then the kids go off to physical activity while the adults share the stories of their struggles.

The women in today’s class trade tales of how to get their kids to eat asparagus, how to shop at the grocery store and how they overcome the guilt associated with having an overweight child. They laugh at how the kids actually police them when shopping for groceries. By incorporating the parents into the program along with the kids, MEND seems to be working. At least it did for Stella.

“Now I know how food affects my body,” she said. “And how, if I have two carbs, I’ll get really, really tired.”

Stella isn’t the only one learning. The Center for Disease Control recently released a report showing slight drops in obesity for low-income preschoolers in 18 states. Although small, these are signs of growing progress.

“I think it’s like any other education,” Cooper said. “Food education should be taught. What we really need to do is talk to kids about what a really good balanced diet is. There’s everyday food and special occasion food.”

It seems like common sense, but it’s not to kids who don’t know carrots grow in the ground, who have junk food marketed to them on TV and then reinforced in their lunch lines, who are insulin resistant at age 9.

But not at age 10.

While Stella has increased in height, she hasn’t gained any more weight. What she has gained, however, is the knowledge that in order to stay healthy, her body needs proper nourishment—and that’s a word Stella  has learned is synonymous with food.