Schools can taste good: a chef leads the way in making good nutrition a required part of the school day.

If you build it, they will come.... But if you plant squash and Swiss chard, will kids eat it? Some people think so. Alice Waters, a well-known California chef at Chez Panisse launched her "Edible Schoolyard" 10 years ago. Now her pilot program is going district-wide in Berkeley, Calif., to help kids make the connections between food and table, good planting and good eating.

The idea behind the Edible Schoolyard--to address hunger and nutrition by helping children learn about agriculture and farming--is not unique to Berkeley. School gardens and farm-to-school programs are popping up in urban schools across the country. Districts from Harlem, N.Y., to Compton, Calif., are recognizing that partnerships with farmers, hospitals and other community institutions can support programs to reduce hunger and improve nutrition in low-income, urban settings.

"No sector--government, foundation, private or nonprofit--can do it all," says Kansas Representative Melvin Neufeld. "Addressing hunger challenges requires collaboration between all these partners."

AN EDIBLE SCHOOLYARD?

In 1995, before public concern about America's obesity epidemic became widespread, Waters recognized the growing problem of poverty in public schools-deteriorating buildings, overworked teachers and undernourished kids. In her home town of Berkeley, Calif., students attending a middle school located just down the street from the prestigious University of California attended class in buildings with peeling paint and no hot water. Forty percent of the students qualified for free or reduced price lunch, and 64 percent were from an ethnic minority. Waters viewed these challenges as "a very good test case" to see if her program could be successful.

Waters began with an unused, abandoned acre on the side of Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School and planted it with seasonal produce, herbs, vines, berries, flowers and fruit trees. The garden now also includes a seed propagation table, tool shed, wood-fired oven, picnic area and chicken coop. Two teachers, the chef teacher and the garden teacher and manager, run the program. Throughout the school year, sixth, seventh and eighth grade students are involved in the garden and kitchen, preparing the beds, sowing the seeds, transplanting, composting, watering, weeding and harvesting. Kitchen activities include preparing the recipe of the day, setting the table, eating, cleaning up and preparing scraps for compost.

Students come for 90-minute sessions several times a week for lessons that weave gardening with other subjects. Math classes measure the garden beds, science classes study drainage and soil erosion. History classes learn about pre-Columbian civilizations from grinding maize. English classes write recipes.

"It is amazing that something so simple could have so many benefits ... it is a great way to teach science, to teach nutrition, and it also produces healthy food," says California Assemblywoman Wilma Chan, who has sponsored legislation to promote healthy eating and physical activity in schools.

Although teaching children how to eat right is only one goal of the program, administrators have learned that when children grow it, harvest it, and cook it, they want to eat it. It is "great to see the kids working in the garden, and being excited about gardening and eating nutritious food," says Chan.

A study conducted by Harvard Medical School in the Edible Schoolyard's fifth year of operation found that not only were kids eating more fruits and vegetables, they were getting better grades. Parents report that, to their amazement, children are asking to recreate recipes at home and eating squash and even Swiss chard.

THE NEXT STEP

Chef Waters has another vision. She wants to make school lunch an academic subject. She says it's a logical next step that can be built on the successful Edible Schoolyard project. Her new idea, called the School Lunch Initiative, is already underway in the Berkeley Unified School District. Students and teachers are involved in preparing healthy meals using local, seasonal ingredients from sustainable farms. A new school cafeteria is the focal point for everyday, hands-on experiences that link learning opportunities in kitchen classrooms and instructional gardens with academic and physical education programs. The Berkley pilot includes a new set of school cafeteria menus that make the connection between farms, schools and the environment by using fresh, seasonal, locally produced food. Funding for the School Lunch Initiative comes from the school district, the Chez Panisse Foundation and the Center for Ecoliteracy.

State lawmakers can help duplicate successful models such as the Edible Schoolyard through startup funds or pilot programs. In 1999, the California Legislature established the Instructional School Gardens Program. Through this grant, administered by the State Department of Education, local school districts and county offices of education help pay for the start-up of school gardens.

Building partnerships between local nonprofits, foundations, the health community and businesses can help establish a pilot school garden program in an at-risk school. According to Waters, in the case of Berkeley's Edible Schoolyard, the Children's Hospital Oakland proved to be a valuable partner because they recognized that there were "4,000 kids at risk in Berkeley, and their clinic could care for only 150." Supporting the Edible Schoolyard was a way to reach at-risk children while they were still forming their eating habits and before they reached an unhealthy weight.

Establish Partnerships

A variety of public, private and nonprofit groups has an interest in reducing hunger and obesity and improving nutrition among school children, including hospitals, environmental and conservation groups, farmers and businesses.

Establishing partnerships with local farmers can be a particularly effective way to reduce the barriers of bringing fresh produce into schools. Two pilot projects funded by the federal government support these types of partnerships.

Legislators can also maximize federal nutrition programs--school breakfast, school lunch, summer food and Food Stamps--by providing supplemental funding and outreach initiatives.

"Maximizing the use of government funding for school meals to purchase nutritious locally produced food benefits the health of students and our local economies," says New York Assemblyman Felix Ortiz. He says these projects "provide new opportunities for city and rural residents to support each other."

Federal pilots that may soon be expanded include:

* Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Pilot Program. Established by the 2002 Farm Bill, the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Pilot Program helps pay for fresh and dried fruits and vegetables for schoolchildren. During the 2004-2005 school year, $9 million was made available. The program is available to selected schools in Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington. Congress is currently working to expand the program.

* Department of Defense Fresh Produce Program. This pilot program established in 1994 and operated by the U.S. Department of Defense allows school food service directors to use federal commodity money to purchase state-grown produce from the Department of Defense, which purchases the products from small- and mid-sized family farmers. The program currently operates in Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi and New Mexico. Illinois and New York are in the process of developing programs. Legislatures can provide start-up funds or direct the appropriate state agency to establish a partnership with the Department of Defense.

NCSL's Hunger and Nutrition Partnership

Current efforts to reduce hunger and improve nutrition are fragmented across disciplines--WIC in the health department, food stamps in the human services agency, and child nutrition programs in state and local education authorities--and in the private and nonprofit sectors through food banks and community kitchens. The Hunger and Nutrition Partnership is an NCSL initiative, supported by The UPS Foundation, that works across public and private sectors and across disciplines to enhance the ability of state policymakers to alleviate hunger and improve nutrition in their communities. For the latest publications from the Hunger and Nutrition Partnership, including the newly released Promising Practices Guide Bringing Legislators to the Table and Addressing Hunger and Nutrition: A Tool Kit for Positive Results, please visit: www.ncsl.org/statefed/humserv/hunger. htm. Additional information can be found at: www.ncsl.org/programs/health/publichealth/foodaccess/index.htm.

Katherine Gigliotti worked on the NCSL Hunger and Nutrition Partnership in the Washington, D.C., office.