Farm-fresh snacks are becoming more the order of the day in school cafeterias.
Excited to expose more students to fresh fruit and vegetables, KISD School Nutrition is hosting Famer’s Markets in various cafeterias this month.
School nutrition and campus leaders helped Tuesday at Mountain View Elementary School hand out samples of apples, berries, squash and other healthy items.
They plan to take their mobile market to Skipcha and Pat Carney elementary schools and to Patterson Middle School over the next few weeks.
The Department of Agriculture promotes Farm Fresh Challenge Month in October.
School Nutrition Coordinator Stephanie Russom said the effort is worthwhile to introduce young students to nutritious ways to snack.
“We’re celebrating Farm Fresh Month. It highlights farms in Texas,” she said.
The Texas gala apple and lettuce grown in Belton were part of the fresh offerings.
“We want to highlight those things, but also give kids a chance to try some things they might not have tried before like the cumquat or squash,” Russom said.
“You can see they are excited about it and that is really my goal, for them to get excited about fruits and vegetables so they can integrate them at home, maybe say ‘I tried that at school, can we try that (at home).’”
Smart Snack suggestions are available through the KISD School Nutrition web page:
https://www.killeenisd.org/school_nutrition
