4. Get on students’ level
When Loudoun County first began its monthly “Taste It Thursdays,” staff focused on encouraging students to try lesser-known produce such as tri-colored cauliflower.
But they soon realized that many students may not even be familiar with more common produce. “I was in a classroom during a nutrition education activity, and we were talking about strawberries,” Dove says. “And I asked students in this class—and this was probably a school that was 1% [free and reduced-price lunch], so very affluent—and out of a class of 22, only five kids had ever tried a strawberry.”
Afterwards, the team incorporated produce more commonly found in American grocery stores, such as grapefruit and kale, into the monthly tastings.