Successfully Making Healthy Eating Fun

Getting kids to eat healthy is all in the marketing, says Sharon Kinion, child nutrition director for Pitt County Schools in North Carolina.

Getting kids to eat healthy is all in the marketing, says Sharon Kinion, child nutrition director for Pitt County Schools in North Carolina. Elementary school students at the 22,000-student, 35-school district are learning to make healthy choices through a host of initiatives that focus on fun.

In the Taste Explorers program, a feature fruit or vegetable—often exotic, like starfruit or purple sweet potatoes—is sent to the classrooms once a month. Students taste the item as the teachers give information on its nutritional benefits. The following day, the item is featured in the school cafeterias. “Usually they react pretty positively [to the items],” says Kinion of the students. “Teachers and parents, too.”

Another program, Nutrition Nugget, challenges students to answer a nutrition-related question each week. The correct answers are entered into a raffle for a prize such as pencils or a hackey-sack.

Once a month, Cafeteria Game Day at the elementary schools features games of trivia and bingo with nutrition themes during lunch. “We try to convey to the students what their best choices are,” Kinion says. “This is just another way to educate them about good nutrition.”

Excerpt from FoodService Director Magazine’s September 15, 2007 article, “A Fun Approach to Healthy.” Reprinted with permission of Ideal Media, LLC.