High schoolers cook up "got veggies?" wellness effort
(10/25/16) Anoka-Hennepin schools shined the spotlight on an unsuspecting star Oct. 25: vegetables.
Champlin Park High School (CPHS) students served up vegetables in the form of harvest sampler salads to students at Oxbow Creek Elementary School while asking their younger peers if they “got veggies?” on their plate. Their presence and conversation at the lunch table was really just a taste of a new educational wellness campaign, designed to inspire students to make healthy choices in the school lunch line, and at home.
A recipe for success
“We have always offered a lot of fruits and vegetables in our schools, but we wanted to send a message that spoke directly to our students, that while fruits and vegetables may not be their favorite, they can be a fun and tasty part of their meal,” school district child nutrition director, Noah Atlas, explained. The Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010 made fruits and vegetables a mandatory addition to each student’s school meal. While Anoka-Hennepin Schools offers students as many fruits and vegetables as they care to eat, when it became mandatory Atlas says that his staff saw more fruits and vegetables on trays, but also significantly more that went uneaten – which provide no nutritional value. “We felt that with a program like this, we could find a way to speak to our students in a way that they wanted to be spoken to.”
Gilbert pitched a role modeling idea to the Hennepin County SHIP office, and grant dollars through the Statewide Health Improvement Program (SHIP) brought the campaign to life.
Cooking up a creative campaign
Child nutrition, wellness and communication teams at Anoka-Hennepin Schools worked with CPHS to cook up the “got veggies?” campaign by conducting focus groups with student leaders involved in athletics, theater, debate and other extracurricular activities.
As part of the focus groups, the high school students met and reviewed the statistics and number of students that were selecting and eating fresh vegetables during school lunch. "The numbers were kind of crazy, and the whole group thought it would be a great to get involved," Erin Magner, a theater student and student council president at CPHS, recalled.
The students worked together to brainstorm catchy phrases and envision how the groups could pose for photos to be used on posters reminiscent of the famous “got milk?” ad campaign launched in the 90s.
Posters feature Bennett Otto, a tenth-grade football player donning his Rebels uniform with an eggplant rather than a ball; and Izzy Ashburn, a tenth-grade volleyball player, bumping a head of lettuce to her teammates. "We thought it was a fun and cute idea - without being too serious," Ashburn said.
Feeding the conversation
The posters are now on display in the cafeterias of Champlin-Brooklyn Park, Dayton, Evergreen Park, Oxbow Creek, and Monroe Elementary Schools; Jackson Middle School; and Champlin Park High School, starring the very students that helped develop the campaign.
By including the high school students in the launch event, they were able to see its impact come full circle - all the way around the lunch table. "It's cool to and see that the elementary school students are super excited and engaged,” Magner said. “Now that we are here as role models, we can see that what we say can really make a difference.”
“I love talking to the kids. They are telling me what their favorite vegetables are, why they chose them and what they know about each one,” Chloe Fisher, twelfth-grade student council vice president and member of the school senate and link crew, said.