School Farms Out Good Food

Vegetable Garden Encourages Students To Eat Healthier

(CBS)  For millions of kids, the four basic food groups are chips, soda, candy and nacho cheese. But one elementary school in Westminster, Vt., has found a way to get kids to eat healthy. And they're doing it the old fashioned way. CBS News Correspondent Tracy Smith reports on this week's Study Hall.

If it wasn't so common, it would be shocking: to most kids, junk food rules. But since this is a time when eating habits — no matter how strange — are formed, teachers in Westminster are trying to cultivate a taste for something healthier.

Just behind the school's playground is a vegetable garden planted, tended and harvested by students. Instead of buying snack foods, the kids grow their own peppers, tomatoes, green beans and basil for pesto.

Getting the kids to eat the veggies is no problem. Some of them were consuming almost as much as they picked. Part of the thrill is being able to eat something they've cultivated with their own grubby little hands, rather than pull it out of a plastic bag.

Studies show that kids who spend 30 minutes a week in a garden are more likely to eat what comes out of it.

Farmer Paul Harlow created the idea of a kids' garden when he saw students pumped up on sugary snacks.

"There were some energetic kids you might say," he says. "[They were] overly energetic and it seemed like they could be eating better stuff."

With Harlow's help, the school put in a few rows of vegetables and now, it's a basic truck farm.

After all the pickings are done, the kids all run back inside for snack time. At that point in the day, they're pretty hard to keep up with.

It isn't just about eating raw vegetables: the kids also cut up garlic for pesto. And they smash tomatoes for pizza sauce.

And after their work, no one has difficulty eating.

The kids also learn how to can things such as beans, so that even in the rough Vermont winter, they can still eat from the garden.

How do you convince a kid that a string bean is going to taste just as good as a potato chip? Smith says you might not convince them it's as good as a potato chip, but once the children worked the process and they have some ownership in the string beans, they're going to try them.

And getting kids to try healthy food could be half the battle.