Super foods make super kids

School offers students new food choices

Quinoa. Edamame. Ginger. They’re foods most of us are used to seeing at the health food store, or on the menu of an Asian bistro. But how about the school lunch tray? 

Next week, students at Crested Butte Community School (CBCS) are getting a crash course in super foods—fresh foods packed full of brain-boosting goodness—just in time for statewide testing.
The week-long celebration of super foods will introduce students to a new super food each day, with the local Girl Scout troop supplying the signs that explain just why it’s so good for the body. Blueberries? Antioxidant-rich berries can help protect us from heart disease and cancer. Quinoa? A protein-packed grain that’s good for the brain.
It’s part of an ongoing effort by community parents, CBCS and the Paradise Food Project to teach local kids how to make better food choices.
“We can change food all we want, but it won’t change anything if the kids don’t understand why it’s good for them,” said Holly Conn of the Paradise Food Project.
Super Foods Week comes on the heels of another exciting development: the Paradise Food Project recently won a grant to set up a salad bar in the CBCS cafeteria. According to information from the Great American Salad Bar Project, kids respond to salad bars in schools by trying new fruits and vegetables, and increasing their overall consumption of the often-maligned food group.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity for schools to teach the kids about nutrition, the choices they make, what they put in their bodies rather than just serve lunch,” said Conn. So bring on the spinach. And the Chia seeds. It’s time to raise some super kids.