PEACHY CHOICES What could Mom or Dad do to that peach to encourage you to take it to school for healthy snack? Lots of Choices and Decisions to be Made At the HYLAND Orchard & Brewery, Sturbridge, MA, August 10, 2002 Story and Photos by Carol Goodrow Intro | The Investigation | Trends and Results | Links and Printables | Around the Orchard It's back to school with KidsRunning.Com and along with the 4 R's of Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic, and Running, many classroom teachers will also be encouraging their students to come to school with a healthy snack. Letters will be sent to parents, the research will be cited, classroom policies will be explained, and if the teacher gets the important message across to the kids, healthy snack will HAPPEN in the classroom, but what do kids prefer to bring in for healthy snack? Read further and find out. INTRO Healthy eating recommendations, for kids and adults alike, are in the news; every day. If you read the newspaper or click on a national news Web site, you can't miss them. The suggestions are simple and basic: -Eat many servings of fruits and vegetables every day. -Go easy on the junk food. -Replace empty calories with calories of nutritional value. -Get your vitamins from food before pills. -Eat food with lots of fiber. -Replace processed grains with whole grains. Sounds simple, but it's not; not in our hurried mixed-up world. We love to bake. We love our sweets. We make the most delicious ice cream. We live for our fast food burgers and our bags of chips. It's how we've been brought up and what we've used to meet our cravings, soothe our souls on bad days, and celebrate our successes. But we know more about the importance of healthy eating today, than we did 20 years ago, so it's up to us to change the balance by minimizing our 'treats' and maximizing our healthful choices. How can we do this? The experts say... by having many healthy choices available to kids at all time. Have that fruit bowl on the table, stacked to the top with fresh fruit; many different kinds. Have bite-sized pieces of veggies available for kids to munch on after school or to quickly tuck into a lunch bag for an in-school snack. Replace portions of processed grains with whole grains, in recipes, so kids can gradually get used to the 'nutty' taste, and think lean, think nutritious and think delicious. But WAIT, the KR philosophy is to ask the kids, before the experts, so on August 10, KR held some PEACHY INVESTIGATIONS, with kids from all over the country, to find out about healthy snack straight from the kids INVESTIGATION KR interviewed 30 children, from 2 1/2 to 14 years of age, by means of a Peachy Investigations Smile Face Survey. The children were asked, "Just what could Mom or Dad do to that peach to encourage you to bring it to school for healthy snack?" The kids responded by evaluating peachy choices. If they knew they'd love to eat it, they drew a smile face. If they weren't sure, but would try, they drew a straight face, and if they knew that there was no way they would try a peach prepared a certain way, they drew a frown face. Kids had fun participating in our Peach Investigations. TRENDS AND RESULTS According to the kids at Hyland Orchards, "LESS is MORE," for it seems that the less anyone does to the peach the more likely a child will be to eat one. Out of the eight choices: the whole fresh peach won hands down, by receiving 27/30 smiles. Sliced peaches were 23/30 smiles. Sliced with cinnamon 21/30 smiles. Sliced with yogurt 17/30 smiles. Fruit salad 14/30 smiles. Muffins 14/30 smiles. Cooked peaches 11 smiles. Peachy layers 9 smiles. As for out-and-out No's the cooked peaches had 12 refusals. Choice Yes's Whole Peach 27 Sliced Peaches 23 Sliced with Cinnamon 21 Sliced with Yogurt 17 Fruit Salad 14 Peach Muffins 14 Cooked Peaches 11 Peachy Layers 9 TREND #1 There were more Yes's than No's overall. Kids will eat healthy snack if they can have the snack of their choice. TREND #2 As in our other investigations, the youngest children participated just like the older kids, with their own drawing and printing, and with their own ideas, even if their parents questioned their choices. TREND #3 There were lots of I'll try's! This was an unexpected trend. Kids would think about a choice and then smile and say, "Well, I think I'll try it." TREND #4 There were 5 children who voted with all Yes's and no children who voted with all No's. TREND #5 Not one child questioned why more sugary hi-fat peachy snacks weren't on the chart, but adults did (peach crisp and peach pie). My reponse? "Peach crisp and peach pie are both delicious desserts which can be eaten on occasion, even with a healthy diet, but they don't fit in the healthy snack category." CONCLUSIONS Kids WILL eat healthy snack and it doesn't take too much effort to provide them with snack in a form that they prefer; just a trip to the fruit market, a few slices with a knife, a little cinnamon, or a container of yogurt to go with it. LINKS AND PRINTABLES Peachy Kids Investigations Handout Healthy Snack in the Classroom Healthy Snack Scrapbook Spinach in the Classroom Summer Tips for Parents HylandBrew.com Journal Writing Blank Journal Cover Run and Journal Form Run and Journal Picture Blank Free Running Bookmarks goodrow@infi.net AROUND THE ORCHARD If you are one of those people who are all No's to peaches, there's more than peaches at the Hyland Orchard: music, BBQ food, wagon rides, brewery tours, ice cream bar, bakery, moon bounce, animal attractions, gift shop, playground, and an antique car or two and LOTS OF ROOM FOR KIDS TO RUN AROUND. Privacy Policy of Kids Running