Healthy Eating with Local Produce (H.E.L.P.)

In the Maplewood-RichmondHeights school district, students are growing every day – in the classroom and outside in the garden.They are putting food on the table – their lunch table, that is. 

It’s all because of the Healthy Eating with Local Produce (HELP) program, funded by MFH through a $248,000 grant to Saint Louis University’s Department of Nutrition & Dietetics. SLU has helped the district teachers develop a curriculum that combines traditional classroom learning with outdoor gardening. The result – fresh produce and more nutritious meals in the school lunchroom, and elementary and middle school students who are better educated about nutrition and healthy eating and activity. The program encourages students to become “locavores”, those who eat and promote local harvest.

While school lunches are usually heavy on processed and canned ingredients that are heated and served, Maplewood Richmond school district wanted to break that trend. Students from the school district participated in a “Recipes from Home” contest and were encouraged to create alternative recipes that replaced some of the regularly processed ingredients with locally grown food. 

“We had about 50 recipes submitted,” says Mildred Mattfeldt-Beman, SLU department chair.“The elementary school families really got into it.” After judging by the St. Louis Chapter of Les Dames d’Esconffier, a group of food and culinary professionals, five recipes were chosen as the winners. The five winning recipes were prepared by the school staff and presented to the students for tasting. But the program didn’t end with the youngsters, graduate students from SLU taught the school district’s kitchen staff how to cook more like chefs with more emphasis on addressing nutritional needs. 

In addition, the school district is working with a variety of area farmers to provide more locally produced fruits and vegetables to the district.“The goal is that within three years 20 percent of the food served in the district will come from local farmers,” says Linda Henke, district superintendent. She made gardening a priority three years ago by instituting the Seed-to-Table program, also funded through MFH. 

From the district’s point of view, the hands-on activities give students a new perspective on learning. In the classroom they can hone their writing skills by creating a new recipe or keeping a journal of their gardening experiences; in the library they can research how certain crops have changed over time and how food plays an important role in a community’s culture. In the garden, they are inhaling fresh air and getting exercise, while also working together in teams. And in the lunchroom, they literally enjoy the fruits of their labors.