Local Produce Gets More Prominent in the Lunch Line

"During lunch at Armin Jahr Elementary last week, Ahneisha Elllison's tray held a breaded-chicken sandwich on white, sausage, chocolate milk, sliced apples, dill pickles, raw yellow squash cut into coins and one experimental uncooked purple string bean.

Like most of the kids in her school, 10-year-old Ahneisha had never eaten a purple bean before. But unlike most, she was willing to try.

She added a dab of ketchup, then took a bite.

"It's good," pronounced the fifth-grader, nodding and chewing. "It tastes like ... like broccoli with beans."

Opportunities to try something different are coming regularly this school year to two campuses in the Bremerton School District. Armin Jahr and West Hills elementaries have received government grants to add more fruits and vegetables into students' diets, putting them in the vanguard of a movement to bring more fresh produce to schools — locally grown when possible.

Washington lawmakers this spring boosted the local angle by passing legislation dubbed Local Farms-Healthy Kids, which puts personnel and money toward connecting schools with Washington farmers and distributors. The first act of the new law was to offer $600,000 in grants to elementary schools with a high proportion of low-income students. Bremerton nabbed $26,000 for Armin Jahr...."