City of Somerville Promotes Healthy Eating in Schools

Dip, crunch-crunch and then thumbs up or thumbs down.

On April 1st, dozens of elementary schoolers at the Winter Hill Community School were voting on a snack that might be added to the lunch menus in Somerville: green, yellow and orange pepper slices with a Greek yogurt-based dip. The taste test is one of the many activities supported by the $1.4 million Carol M. White Physical Education Program (PEP) grant that the City won last year.

“Somerville’s mission is to create a culture of healthy lifestyles by increasing physical activity, healthy eating, [and] nutrition education in the district,” PEP Grant Project Director Caitlin Kelly told Somerville Neighborhood News (SNN). “It’s a collaboration between the schools, the city, and some of our community partners like the YMCA, Mystic Learning and Boys and Girls Club.”

“We are promoting National Nutrition Month, which was in March. The motto was to ‘Bite Into a Healthy Lifestyle,’” she added as students lined up at a table covered with pepper-and-dip samples. “They’re trying, they’re voting, if they like it they would try it again.”

Superintendent Tony Pierantozzi gave the new snack and long “yummmm,” while Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone had a little more to say.

“I really like it, because it tastes fresh, it’s kind of crunchy,” he told SNN.

Most of the students said they liked the snack, also.

“I like the red one,” third grader Gabriel said.

Emma chimed in: “They’re really good.”

While at the school, Curtatone and Pierantozzi thanked the kitchen staff for their participation in helping make school lunches more healthy, and congratulated them for a “Bronze Award” from Michelle Obama’s “Healthier US School Challenge: Smarter Lunchrooms.”

“I want to congratulate all of you in the department and in the schools,” the mayor told the men and women who took a break from serving students to assemble in the lunchroom.

“I’m not surprised by the award because Somerville schools and the food services department have been a national and international model,” he noted.

“You come in here, you have the effervescence of fresh fruits and vegetables, all the color, it looks so tantalizing and so inviting for kids, and for our kids in the city, and in any city, this is where they get their meals: their breakfast and their lunch,” he said.

Unfortunately, SNN noted that a lot of fruit put onto children’s’ trays ended up in the trash without being touched. Asked about the phenomena, one School Department person said it was an ongoing issue that staff was going to work on.