photo by flickr member NatalieMaynor

Everyone knows that eating fresh fruits and vegetables will contribute to overall good health.  Now there's an opportunity for your children get more of them while in school.

Fruits and vegetables are expensive and often families on a tight budget have limited access to them.  As reported by WPDE through the Let's Move: Salad Bars 2 Schools program, schools can apply to get a free salad bar, which will give children the opportunity to eat more produce and try new things.  According to the Salad Bars 2 School website,

Both academic research and actual experience in schools across the country are increasingly demonstrating that school children significantly increase their consumption of fruits and vegetables when given a variety of choices in a school fruit and vegetable salad bar. When offered multiple fruit and vegetable choices, children respond by trying new items, incorporating greater variety into their diets, and increasing their daily consumption of fruits and vegetables.

If a school is awarded a salad bar, that is exactly what they get - the equipment.  The actual school is responsible for the funding required to stock it, which could be a prohibitive cost for many of them.  They are, however, encouraged to engage in fundraising to offset this expense.

If you're interested in more information about your child's school applying, go to Saladbars2schools.org.  For more information about healthy school lunches, check out thelunchbox.org. They have an excellent video about why making changes, such as salad bars, in the school lunch program is so important.  You can find it here.

See related article: Lakewood Elementary School gets healthy and is rewarded for it