Grade 2 student Jasmeen Mallhi is at the head of the line in this shot of Osoyoos Elementary School students queuing up for a fresh lunch at the school’s new salad bar on May 27. The school launched the salad bar program last week to give students a healthy lunch and teach them about the benefits of using local produce. Photo by Erin Stodola
OSOYOOS TIMES-June 3, 2009-
By Paul Everest-Osoyoos Times
The usual lunch for seven-year-old Seth Kriese is sandwiches and some snacks.
And while that’s still pretty good, the Grade 2 student said he was pretty impressed by the lunch choices he was presented with on May 27 when Osoyoos Elementary School (OES) launched its new salad bar at lunchtime.
“I liked it,” he said. “You want to know why?
“Because it was healthy.”
Twice a week until the end of the school year, students will have access to a salad bar offering food from local producers as well as hot foods such as macaroni and cheese or chili.
Sandy Summers, chair of the school’s Parent Advisory Council, helped bring the salad bar pilot program to the school with the support of School District 53 trustee Marieze Tarr.
Summers said the project was born out of the “Farm to Table” program currently being offered at 13 schools around the province including Oliver’s elementary and secondary schools.
Through the program students are offered fresh fruits and vegetables.
Summers said although OES is not part of the program, Oliver’s South Okanagan Secondary School had some extra equipment and a salad bar was offered to Osoyoos in March.
The salad bar is located in the school’s multi-purpose room and for the first week, students were given the opportunity to use it for free.
From then on, Summers said, students can pay $3 to get a healthy lunch.
After the six-week pilot project ends, the school will apply to become part of the Farm to Table program, she added.
The Town of Osoyoos has allowed the school to use the kitchen at the neighbouring Sonora Community Centre for the program because it has a commercial dishwasher— no disposable plates or cutlery will be used.
Troy Bratton of the Sage Pub is the program’s chef and the menus have been approved by Interior Health’s dietician, Summers said.
The food is coming in from different growers in the area as well as local co-ops and Osoyoos’s Super Valu grocery store has donated some items to the program, she added.
Children serve themselves while parent monitors observe.
Summers said the monitors encourage students to try new foods and the reason the salad bar is offered two days in a row is due to the belief that children need to be exposed to new foods more than once to develop a liking for items they’ve never tried before.
Along with providing students with healthy lunch options, one of the goals is to teach kids about the benefits of eating locally such as reducing carbon emissions from transporting food long distances and supporting local food producers.
As important as healthy eating and using local produce is, for Seth, the program was an exciting lunch treat for one reason: he could go up for seconds.
“The salad bar won’t end!”
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