Healthy Lunch: Manzo Elementary's Farm School

It's open market day at Manzo Elementary School and the students are excited about the carrots, but not because they're healthy.

Through urban agriculture, TUSD and the kids at Manzo Elem. are reconnecting to what sustains us, one vegetable at a time and, perhaps, through lifestyle and diet changes, lower the rates of metabolic diseases in Pima County's adolescents.

But these second and third graders aren't thinking about Type II diabetes or obesity. They're looking to sell their produce to the neighbors living nearby.

"We've got a customer!" The three kids stationed at the cash drawer get ready. They've been toiling for weeks. Learning about math and science, even some business-; all outside, while getting their hands dirty. The end result isn't a presentation or a paper, but eggs, spinach and mint, even Tilapia-- all raised by little hands on a little farm-- and sold to the public.

Kim Carson stands with her students while they talk to customers. Shortly cut, blonde hair frames her face as she squints in the sun. The NAU graduate is new to Tucson and hesitant about the looming summer. For the past year she's been guiding the children on the ins and outs of growing.

“We incorporate the farming into the curriculum,” she says. “So they're learning about ratios and weights and measurements and how to balance the books.”

She's referring to the accounting the students employ to ensure the cost of supplies is in line with the the money raised from the open market. The cost of raising chickens, for example, is supported entirely on egg sales.

Finding excitement in a 7-year-old's eyes over a bunch of greens is rare these days. A 2011 survey revealed a third of kids think cucumbers grow in the ground and half aren't sure how broccoli is made.

The video of celebrity chef Jamie Oliver exposing some first grader's confusion over potatoes and tomatoes went viral in 2010. But little Veronica is enthusiastically talking to a new customer about the day's offering. Today, mint is moving the most.

“This is kale.” She points to baskets of vivid greens. “We just pulled it out of the ground yesterday. It's $4 a bunch. We also have eggs.”

The move away from the processed food shipped in boxes and towards the fresh and local came about after Congress passed the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act in 2010.

The law, designed to feed low-income children more healthy food, provides $4.5 billion in funding for schools over 10 years to accomplish. Before the act was passed, a typical school lunchroom offered pizza, chicken nuggets and nachos, Healthy Schools Campaign Director Rochelle Davis wrote in an email.

The Healthy School Campaign formed as a way to implement the federal law.

“What's wrong with school lunches is what is wrong with all the food we're eating — it's not just in the schools,” Davis says. “One of the biggest deficits is the lack of fruits and vegetables and whole grains.”

Indeed, for Tucson's youth, a large segment have minimal exposure to freshly prepared meals, according to TUSD's food service director, Shirley Sokol.

“We have a generation that ate a lot of fast and frozen food and went out to restaurants,” she said. For Tucson's largest school district, there have been considerate changes since the Healthy Lunch Act was passed. TUSD faced “challenges in implementing” the new program but most of the “wrinkles have been ironed out since,” Sokol said, pointing to the low limit of salt initially set by the law as an example.

“Foods at that sodium range were unpalatable and not consumed by the students,” Sokol says. Before the lunch act, menu planning was based on nutrition. Now it's based on food groups — protein, grains, vegetables and fruits.

Sokol says TUSD works hard at making sure the students want to eat what they're being served. Under the new guidelines, the cafeterias are now making, on average, 100 unique dishes per year instead the previous 10. “Fusion” gets kids excited about ethnic meals from around the world, Sokol says.

They expand their palates by eating curries and empanadas while learning about geography and foreign cultures. In Arizona, the healthy lunch movement was written into law with the passage of HB 2544 in 2005. Among some of the provisions, the Garden to Cafeteria program, which allowed schools to grow food on the campuses where they studied.

Manzo Elementary was the first school to start planting. HB 2544 also banned the sale of sugary drinks in elementary and middle schools across the state. During meal periods, TUSD shuts off vending machines in high schools to be in compliance with the law and offers what they call “Smart Snack” options along side the chips, candy and soda.

“We like to think that we are an important part of the education experience our district provides,” Sokol says, referring to the efforts of TUSD's food services department. “But concerns continue due to changes in the food products available today and decreased overall physical activity existing in our modern culture.”

In the Marana Unified School District, breakfast time is now built into the first class of the day. The district recognized the value in having a well-fed student in their schools. Shelly Moore, the mother of two daughters who are enrolled in MUSD, says her girls get two meals a day during the week under their free meal program.

“I really depend on their schools to provide good nutrition,” Moore says. “Otherwise my family eats freshly prepared, home cooked food at home.”

One of her daughters favorite snacks are packs of nori, a freeze-dried seaweed full of antioxidants and other macro nutrients. She explains how she avoids excessive junk. The family of four doesn't drink soda, but rather tea and water. As a mother, Moores says she's the exception.

“None of my kids are overweight, but it's only because we deliberately avoid sugars and fats,” she says. “We have sweets and desserts, but in balance.”

Nationally, childhood obesity has more than doubled in children, according to the Centers for Disease Control. In Arizona, the rates are similar, but disproportionately affect minorities, according to Arizona's Health Department. UA professor Merill Eisenberg combs over the reams of materials she has stacked on her living room coffee table. She's talking about how the big soda companies spent hundred of millions specifically targeting Latino and black kids as she thumbs through the studies. Eisenberg has emerged as a champion for urban agriculture in Tucson.

She's organized neighborhoods and worked with the city to revise their codes in legally allowing renters and homeowners to farm their food. As an anthropologist and freelance writer for Edible Baja Arizona, she gets excited when talking about food issues.

“The Hispanic community represents one of the last untapped consumer bases for Pepsi and Coca Cola,” she says. Perhaps that's why Mexico and the Navajo Nation have passed fast food taxes. The poor are also hit, Eisenberg says. The latest figures from the state show that nearly one third of Arizona's kids are overweight, but one in five aren't sure where their next meal will come from.

“It's really all about the crap we're eating,” Eisenberg says. “And the ability for someone to grow their own food is huge in changing that.” Back at the market it's nearly closing time. It's the last market of the semester.

The year's almost over and the kids begin showing their disappointment. As Ms. Carson reminds her students of the time, they see a couple approach.

“One more customer!” A boy shouts excitedly. The couple, a man and woman who look to be in their late 40s, are smiling wide, holding empty tote bags. “Is this the Manzo Market?” the man asks.

“It's our first time here. We're from the Pueblo Community Garden and we've heard all about you.” Little Veronica is excited to hear about a new garden.

“Ooh! What do you plant?” She asks.

Her growing passion about gardens symbolic of the movement towards a more healthy lunch.

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