Paul Banks’ new greenhouse augments health program

• Children learn nutrition by raising and eating healthy food
By Randi Somers
Homer Tribune

Photo provided - Jennifer Reinhart's second graders at Paul Banks Elementary enjoy a cucumber snack. From left, Isabel Dye, Seamus McDonough, Jacob Thompson and Leilani Sallison. Students are benefitting from a greenhouse now in use at Paul Banks Elementary.

A new greenhouse at Paul Banks Elementary is exposing children to fresh fruits and vegetables, and teaching them what healthy foods can do for their bodies.
Karin Sonnen, chairwoman of the Paul Banks Parent Teachers Association Wellness Committee said many vegetables have already been planted and the children are ready to plant more. The greenhouse was purchased and installed through several donations and constructed by Homer High School shop students.
“Once a week, snack-sized portions of fruits and vegetables are prepared and delivered to all 10 classrooms, so every child has the opportunity to try the food,” Sonnen said. “When the snacks are being offered and consumed, the teachers read information given to them when the food is delivered, which enlightens the students about the food, including where it originated, where it is commercially grown now, and the great things it does to help their bodies stay healthy.”
The students try healthy snacks in the classroom when they might not at home, and most have found new foods they like, teachers report. “Some of the comments I have heard from the teachers, include things like, ‘One of my students didn’t know what cantaloupe even was, and discovered he liked it,’” Sonnen said.
One student said, “My first grade mouth does like this, even though my kindergarten mouth didn’t!”
The Paul Banks Elementary Wellness Committee of the PTA has supported this program for the last five years in addition to grants received (from the Alaska and National PTA). It has also been working on menu modifications to the school breakfast and lunch program with the school district’s food service staff.
Youngsters were coming to school hungry so the school developed a breakfast program this school year. When the Committee heard it was coming, they knew they wanted something different from the breakfast menu currently served. They wanted something simple, filling and nutritious for the children. After much discussion and a school year later, Paul Banks Elementary is slated to get a new breakfast menu in the fall. The Committee suggested removing the sugar cereals like Frosted Flakes, Fruit Loops and Cocoa Puffs and replacing those foods with something like bagels and peanut butter, hard-boiled eggs and fruit, or some kind of egg wrap. The current breakfast menu with the sugar cereals assumes the children will have two bowls of the cereal. Most kids don’t have time to finish both bowls, and those are the days that some teachers see them have a sugar crash mid-morning and be hungry again an hour or more before lunch time.
The Committee also continues to push for changes to the school district’s lunch menu involving removing desserts and replacing them with fruits or vegetables. Additionally, they are working to see the school district meet its own wellness policy requirements for the food it sells during the lunch hour. The school district has committed to making changes to what it orders for these items for the 2011-2012 school year. The Wellness Committee is made up of parents, teachers, school district food service staff and a certified dietician.