Amphi schools roll out fresh fruit, veggie bars

Each child grabs a blue tray on which cafeteria workers serve broccoli, cheese pizza and milk.

From there, the kids continue on to a vegetable station, where they pick their favorite from a bar of carrots, salad greens, jicama, apples and strawberries. Using tongs and serving spoons, they serve themselves.

The overwhelmingly popular option? Strawberries — without a doubt.

The Amphitheater School District is placing these vegetable and fruit stations in all of its schools. Most of the schools have already begun using them with the start of the new school year.

The goal is to “give students more and fresher options for lunch,” said Marc Lappitt, Amphi’s director of transportation and food service. “That’s the simple truth.”

The district invested $40,000 in getting portable vegetable stations for each school, he said. The produce being offered to students are all domestically grown.

The selection of vegetables and fruits is based on research, he said.

The vegetable bars also help with the district’s larger goal of promoting health and wellness, said Carol Tracy, Mesa Verde’s principal.

“This has been a good addition to talk about health and nutrition,” she said.

Nutrition education is often incorporated into PE or science classes, she said. The vegetable and fruit station serves as an opportunity to learn about nutrition in classrooms.

The biggest benefit is that kids have a choice and are more willing to try new things, she said.

For instance, beets.

Cathy Clonts, a food service supervisor for the district, said the vegetable bar has a five-day rotation, which includes cauliflower, broccoli, salad greens and kidney beans.

Kids usually gravitate toward what they know and like, she said. But giving them a variety of choices allows them to be curious about something they haven’t tried.

The power of choosing has proven to have another benefit: reduced waste.

“We’re seeing much less waste because they are choosing what they want,” Clonts said. “They seem to really like it.”

Rylee Blauert, a first-grader at Mesa Verde, got herself a nice serving of strawberries, which she said are her favorite. Her second favorite, she said, are carrots. Rylee also got a pineapple cup.

Why does Rylee like vegetables? “Because they’re yummy!”

Why does she like the vegetable bar? “Because we get to pick our own things,” she said.