Tips from School Food Pros: How to Get Your Kid to Love Fruits and Veggies
July 29, 2024
Fresh fruits and vegetables are good for the body and the mind, delivering much-needed vitamins and other nutrients that improve students’ ability to concentrate and do well in school. So why can it be so hard to get kids to try them?
Check out these four tricks of the trade from skilled professionals who know how to turn the foods kids need into the meals they love.
1. Kids Eat With Their Eyes: Getting students to eat healthy begins before they take the first bite. “For kids to like a meal, it’s got to look good and taste good,” said Azusa Unified School District Chef Carol Ramos. To get students to go for foods that are good and good for them, Carol and her team pull out all the stops so their meals jump off the tray. That means training up their knife skills so they can cut fruits and veggies in appealing ways and packing their meals with vibrant colors. “When we make salads here, we have cherry tomatoes, freshly cut cucumbers, and delicious sweet corn. The yellow, red, green colors really pop!”
2. Fresh is Best: To fall in love with fruits and vegetables, students need to taste them at their freshest. And the best way to do that is by sourcing ingredients right from local farmers. ”Not only are you supporting the farmers whose kids go to your schools and who live in your community, but you’re also giving kids the most nutritious, most delicious produce that they can get,” said Anna Nakamura Knight, whose Old Grove Orange family farm provides farm-to-school produce and programming to schools in California’s Inland Empire. “We pick produce the morning before a delivery, pack it that afternoon, and then I drive it over a big box truck to the school or district kitchen. Those kids are eating fruits harvested at peak ripeness that are super fresh and taste amazing.”
3. Spice it Up: Healthy and tasty aren’t opposites. With the right herbs and spices, you can kick the flavor into overdrive even while minimizing salt and sugar. “We use things like lemon, garlic, jalapeno and cilantro,” said Celeste Gonzalez, a cafeteria worker in Tulare’s Oak Valley Union Elementary School District. “We don’t make things too spicy, but we give it just the right kick.” A little seasoning can make the difference between veggies that stay on the plate and those that leave kids wanting seconds. And when Celeste’s team needs something guaranteed to make her students’ mouths water, they reach for the Tajín, a classic Mexican spice blend combining chili powder and lime. “All the kids love it. They didn’t like garbanzos, so we served them Tajín. Now they love them. If you tell them it has Tajín on it, kids will eat anything. Even carrots.”
4. Go With What They Know: If kids are afraid they won’t love healthy foods, just take the foods they love and make them healthy. Adding bell peppers to quesadillas, fresh broccoli to chicken alfredo or sugar snap peas to chow mein gives children something familiar while getting them to try new foods. And expanding their palates at a young age is key to setting them on a healthy path for the future. “The benefit is getting these kids to try something different,” said Oxnard Union High School District Cook Vou Suafoa. “If you want them to step outside the box, it’s better to start them now.”
Healthy eating doesn’t have to be a chore. Helping a kid get a taste for fresh, flavorful meals brimming with nutritious fruits and vegetables is a gift that keeps on giving well into adulthood. By using these tricks of the trade, California School Food Professionals are helping our kids build lifelong healthy habits.
For Azusa Unified Chef Carol Ramos, that’s one of the most gratifying parts of her job. “We are bringing different ingredients that we weren’t lucky enough to have, often straight from the farm. I love getting to help make kids more interested and excited about what school food can be.”