Gazette.Net: Oakland Terrace Elementary students campaign for healthy food

School to offer salad bar for next year

by Kara Rose, Staff Writer

Ciara Mulvihill was sitting at lunch one day when she and her four friends realized the missing ingredient in their school lunches: healthier food options.

That is, until graduation on June 13, when Oakland Terrace Elementary School received a brand new salad bar.

We all noticed how we didnt really like the school lunches and they werent really healthy, said 11-year-old Ciara of Silver Spring.

After talking about it with the lunch lady in April, Ciara and her four friends Siena Butters, 11, Hana Jemaneh, 10, Olivia Kaufmann, 11, and Hannah Nolan, 10, all of Silver Spring started to collect evidence, such as expired carrots and mayonnaise, a grease-soaked napkin from the pizz! a, an or ange with brown spots on it and some undercooked foods, which they brought to the schools principal, Cheryl Pulliam.

They did it completely on their own, said Abbie Mulvihill, Ciaras mother. The parents werent pushing for it. It was something these kids were coming up with on their own. I was really impressed, and I was really surprised at their results.

Pulliam encouraged the girls to write a letter to Marla Caplon, director of Montgomery County Public Schools Division of Food and Nutrition Services, explaining their concern.

I was speaking to the principal and she told me the children were rallying together and wanted healthy food, said Caplon, who said the girls request resonated wonderfully with her. She then suggested the salad bar, one of 15 donated to MCPS by Whole Foods last year.

The county already has eight salad entree items schools can choose from, including a chef salad that weighs in at about 222 calories per serving and the shrimp popper salad clocking in at 310 calories. The salad bar would provide relatively low-calorie food options daily as an alternative to entrees like individual cheese pizzas that weigh in at 400 calories per serving or cheese quesadillas at 455 calories.

The Centers for Disease Control reported in 2008 that more than one-third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese, a rate that has more than tripled in the past 30 years. While many schools already have access to salad bars, Caplon hopes these will increase the consumption of fruit and vegetables in schools. She said there are about 32 elementary schools still without salad bars.

Weve begun placing these in elementary and secondary schools that expressed an interest and logistically could handle them in their multipurpose room or lunch line, she said.

When the girls arrived to their fifth-grade promotion ceremony, Siena said they were all surprised and excited to find out that all of their hard work paid off. The salad bar was presented to the school for the new! school year.

Though the girls will be attending different middle schools including Newport Middle School and Eastern Middle School, both in Silver Spring they were proud of the legacy they have left behind.

I was really surprised, because we thought we didnt do it because we didnt really get a response. But I was really happy to know that we accomplished something this big, Ciara said. I think it encourages the other kids to do what they believe is right and really try to make a difference.

krose@gazette.net