Weight Loss Diet Program

It was not yet 11 a.m. at the Partin Settlement Elementary School in Kissimmee, Fla., on a sunny day last October. But lunch service necessarily begins early when there are 838 children to feed, and the meal was already well under way. Danielle Hollar walked calmly amid the lunchroom chaos, holding a large, raw, uncut sweet potato in one hand and a tray filled with tiny cups of purйed sweet potatoes in the other. That Hollar does not get frazzled even among hundreds of jabbering children is one of the talents she brings to her job. That she is tall and blond and slim, and many of the students seem to have school-kid crushes on her, is another.

How can we feed our children more healthfully in school?
Photomontage by Stephen Lewis
“This is a sweet potato,” she said, as she stopped at each table and gave each child a purйe sample. “It has a lot of vitamin A and C and B6. Have you ever seen one of these?” Most of the children had not. “It’s like a regular potato, but it’s orange inside,” she said, which got their attention. “It has a lot more vitamins than a white potato.”

Angelina wanted to know why there were no marshmallows on top. Angel put down his lemon pie, tried the sweet potatoes and announced he preferred the pie. Mateo, however, was making a meal of what his classmates eyed so suspiciously. Collecting the cups of everyone around him, he ate a dozen of the tablespoon-size portions before a teacher cut him off.

“It’s sweet, which is why it’s called a sweet potato, but it’s also good for you,” Hollar said, as she moved from table to table, sounding one exclamation point short of a sales pitch. Eager as she was to get the children to taste what she offered, though, she pointedly refused to compare this vegetable to candy.

“I don’t like sweet potatoes,” said Jessica, who is in the second grade.

“Have you ever tried one?” Hollar asked.

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Last Modified : September 6th, 2006
Filed under : General
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