NEW YORK—More New York City public school children will soon have access to hearty fruit and vegetables, with the expansion of the city’s Salad Bar Initiative.
Whole Foods, which opened its seventh store in New York City Thursday on East 57th Street, donated the cost of installing 57 salad bars, around $300,000, through its Whole Kids Foundation.
“This is a gift that is going to keep on giving for years to come as thousands of our students learn to make healthier nutritional choices in their lives,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.
As part of the Bloomberg’s Task Force on Obesity, the city has pushed for the addition of salad bars in schools, enabling children to make healthier food choices. The city’s goal is to put salad bars in all 1,200 school buildings by 2015.
Currently, there are salad bars in roughly three-quarters of the city’s schools, according to the mayor’s office. The salad bar is included in the $1.50 lunch, reduced-priced lunch, or free lunch programs.
Healthier Children
Giving students better access to fresh fruit and vegetables is one way Bloomberg is trying to fight childhood obesity, a rate he said has decreased 5.5 percent in the past five years (for kindergarteners through eighth grade) thanks to the city’s efforts to educate children about healthy eating.
“Kids do make better choices around their meals if they do have access to a salad bar. They tend to eat more fruits and vegetables and will eat a bigger variety,” Diane Harris, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lead for the Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools initiative said.
