Kyle Peveto

In her hands-on college nutrition classes as well as cooking segments in monthly Harvest of the Month videos, Judy Myhand is an advocate for nutritious food.

She is known for gently encouraging the children and young adults she works with to explore the benefits of eating more fruits and vegetables.

“Try it. You just might like it,” she tells them with a smile.

A nutrition instructor in the LSU College of Agriculture School of Nutrition and Food Sciences and a part of the Seeds to Success team, Myhand has worked with children, teens and college students for decades.

Myhand answered a few questions recently about how farm to school programs can change the way children think about food.

What are the nutritional needs of schoolchildren?

Children don't necessarily have radically different nutrition requirements than adults, except that they are growing. So, they do have a little more essentiality to ensure that they get the nutrients that they need for optimum health. Once a human is fully grown, it's still important for good health, but it's not as crucial as it is for that growing child.

They need to eat fruits, vegetables, whole grains, dairy and proteins, but what shouldn't they be eating? What is going to interfere with good health, metabolic processes and mental development? Not just mental but emotional development, the ability to handle stress and the ability to learn — are all impaired by a diet that's high in salt, saturated fat and added sugars.

How do schools try to ensure children have access to proper nutrition while they are on campus?

The National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program were created to offer foods that supply about two-thirds of the nutritional requirements for a growing child. It's important for schools to ensure that they're following the recommendations, which means serving lots of fruits and vegetables. The challenge they run into is that they might serve it, but it isn’t necessarily eaten if the children have never been exposed to it. That plate waste is a problem, and school gardens can be part of the solution.

So, how do you introduce children to fruits and vegetables in a positive way?

Research documented that children in a school garden program who were given an iPad to pick the foods that they wanted on their school tray were more likely to pick vegetables and fruit than children who didn't have a school garden program. Additional research determined that children who participated in a school garden program consumed up to three times as much fruits and vegetables as children who didn't participate in a school garden program and even ended up eating more of them at home. Participation in the school garden was correlated with increased consumption.

How do school gardens teach children about nutrition?

The students go into the school garden every day. They see the tomato forming, and they get an almost an emotional attachment. Watching the vegetable grow and change, seeing the possibilities. It's just a cool thing, taking pride in what they've accomplished. A plant wilts. You water it, and it pops right back up. Then the teacher can say, just like that plant, “You need to drink more water.”

Master Gardeners who participate in school gardens give sneaky nutrition lessons to the kids. It's not like there's a teacher standing there lecturing them about nutrition. It's just planting the idea, if you will, of the value of eating nutritious fruits and vegetables by comparing the growth of a seed into a plant that bears fruit. If it is fed the right nutrients, it stays healthy as compared to one that isn’t. Then the students can connect that to their own nutrient needs and growth and development.

Kyle Peveto is editor of Louisiana Agriculture magazine.

Judy Myhand is a nutrition instructor in the LSU College of Agriculture School of Nutrition and Food Sciences and a part of the Seeds to Success team. AgCenter file photo

Two girls sample fresh strawberries during a Louisiana Farm to School event at the Knock Knock Museum in Baton Rouge in 2019. Photo by Olivia McClure