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From our friends at Healthy Monday…

Kids today grow up amidst a welter of junk food ads and calorie crazy fast-food joints. The numbers are startling: nearly one-fifth of our nation’s 4-year olds are obese. 17.6% of children aged 12-19 are obese, triple the figure in 1980. And the percentages are even higher where fast food outlets are located near schools.

Tony Geraci, the renegade Baltimore school food service director, has a solution. It’s rooted in what kids eat in the cafeteria, but goes far beyond that. Geraci, a former chef, restaurateur and food broker, wants students to experience the entire life-cycle of food, from farm to fork, he says.

That’s why he’s turned a 33-acre abandoned farm tucked behind strip malls in Catonsville, Maryland into the Great Kids Farm. Here students from kindergarten to high school plant seeds in one of three greenhouses, tend radish patches, help maintain a compost station and learn to harvest the apple orchards.

Students then bring this knowledge – and seeds – back to their schools. Geraci hopes that, over time, every one of Baltimore’s more than 200 schools will have its own garden. But it doesn’t end there. By working on the farm, students can develop lucrative landscaping skills. Others can train in one of three Great Kids Cafes, managing the restaurant and selling farm produce.

Yet, primarily, Geraci is committed to serving kids fresh fruits and vegetables – locally grown whenever possible. On the first day of school last year, Geraci served 82,000 local peaches to students, some of whom had never tasted a fresh peach before. He consults with his middle school students on which vegetables to serve and when, and urges them to design menus and create music playlists related to each menu’s ethnic theme.

In his elementary schools, cafeterias offer “no-thank-you-bites,” where kids can sample fresh vegetables they might not be familiar with; if they try and don’t like them, they simply say “No thank you.” For each bite these students take, they’re awarded stars next to their name; “constellation parties” are organized each month for the winners.

This notion of serving fresh, healthful and locally produced food to nourish students’ bodies and minds is slowly gaining credence. Check out what the good people at School Food FOCUS are doing to bring the freshest produce to the inner-city. In addition, the USDA’s Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP), funded by the 2008 Farm Bill, is now a national initiative, providing free fruit and/or vegetable snacks for needy children every school day.

At Healthy Monday, we strongly support such public health initiatives. If you do too, if you believe the kids in your community should have fresh, regional produce in their cafeterias, reach out to your local school council and/or government officials. Tell them about FFVP, about Tony Geraci’s “no-thank-you-bites,” about school-based gardens that can teach children the wonders and health benefits of fresh produce.

Encourage them to try these new programs on Monday. The start of the school week is the perfect time to introduce a new vegetable, or kick-start a new fitness campaign. This weekly renewed call to action can support long-term behavioral change – in this case, encouraging kids to take an active role in the foods they eat, and helping stem childhood obesity.