Real Mom Nutrition

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Fruit Ninjas: A Simple School Wellness Program

Here’s how to create a simple volunteer program that helps more kids enjoy fruit with school meals.

I admit: I occasionally rant. Every once in a while, I like to get right up on a soapbox and have at it (one of my most popular blog posts is Soccer Mom Soapbox, after all).

While I prefer to call it “therapeutic” and “consciousness raising”, some people see it as complaining. And every once in a while, someone on my Facebook page will tell me to stop whining and do something.

And of course, I do things. But sometimes my knee-jerk reaction is to gripe about something—when really, I should focus on trying to fix it instead.

At the start of the school year, I was at my son’s elementary school one morning during breakfast. They serve fresh fruit every morning, usually apples or oranges. As I sat there with my son, I noticed that while a lot of kids took fruit, hardly any of them ate it. The reason seemed pretty obvious: Peeling an orange is hard work, especially when you’re six. And most of the kids are in some stage of losing or growing their front teeth, not ideal for biting into a hard apple.

So I watched the fruit go straight into the garbage. And I got irritated.

  Get More: See All My Tops Posts About School Wellness

Then I switched gears. I approached the cafeteria manager and (very politely) asked her about the fruit. Was it possible to serve sliced apples and oranges instead? No, she said she didn’t have time — and any leftover sliced fruit on the serving line would have to be trashed. I understood. But what if, I asked, someone sliced the kids’ fruit for them once they had taken it? And what if I organized it  myself — and it didn’t create any extra work for her or the cafeteria monitors?

And with that, the Fruit Ninjas were born.

The Fruit Ninja Program is school wellness program that consists of a group of parents at my son’s school. We take turns circulating around the cafeteria in the mornings, asking kids if they’d like to have their fruit sliced. We sign up for shifts of 1-2 parents each morning, and we use a separate room off the cafeteria to cut the fruit (we wear foodservice-grade gloves and deliver the cut-up fruit to the kids in paper trays).

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The students love it. The first morning of our program, I looked around the cafeteria and saw kids eating oranges instead of throwing them away. When bananas are served, we open or slice them by request too (some kids like sandwiching them between mini pancakes). And the morning we sliced fresh pears, a little boy came up to me and said he loved his pear—the first one he’d ever eaten.

What makes this successful? Parents willing to donate a half-hour of their time in the morning. And a principal and staff who care about wellness and are willing to try something new.

No, I won’t stop ranting. Because sometimes, it feels good. But turning a reaction into an action—that feels way, way better.[clickToTweet tweet=”How to start a ‘Fruit Ninja’ program at school:” quote=”How to start a ‘Fruit Ninja’ program at school:”]

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Comments

  1. Great job!

    Is it odd that this line made me tear up?
    “And the morning we sliced fresh pears, a little boy came up to me and said he loved his pear—the first one he’d ever eaten.”

    Makes me smile!!

    Reply

  3. Wow, this is so cool. And I hope it isn’t weird for me to say I’m so proud of you! I think this is such a wonderful thing you are all doing at your school. Made me smile 🙂

    Reply

  5. Love this, Sally! Will definitely be pitching it to our Wellness Committee. In our school, unused whole fruit is put in a basket and left in the hallway–free to a good home. Hungry students and staff have been gobbling it up!

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    • Stacy–great idea! I will ask our cafeteria manager what happens with the leftovers. I assumed they were saved for the next meal, but I love the idea of a basket of fruit the kids/parents/staff can grab.

      Reply

  6. This is brilliant. Thank you! On a microlevel I saw that my children are more likely to eat fruit if it’s peeled for them or cut up, so even when I put an orange into the lunchbox I peel it. Also, at our schools there is so little time to eat that requiring the kids to peel an orange means they don’t have time to eat it once they’ve got the peel off, if that makes sense.

    Anyway, thank you for helping the children at your school and for sharing this wonderful idea!

    Reply

  10. As always, your post is spot on. Curious, why do your kids have breakfast at school? And why were you eating their with them?

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    • Hi Becky–thanks for your nice words. At my son’s school, all students wait in the cafeteria before school starts, whether they are eating breakfast or not. Some mornings my son eats there, some mornings he doesn’t–and either way, he likes me to wait with him until his buddies show up :). Lately, he’s been eating school breakfast though–and that’s actually the topic of next week’s post! 🙂

      Reply

  11. Thank you for finding an answer instead of just ranting. As a Child Nutrition Director at a small school district, I find it’s rare for parents to actually look for a solution they can implement but rather expect the district to do it all.

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  12. I think that should be a national program! I know my kids always want me to peel or cut their fruit before they eat it.

    Reply

  13. Great Job Mom ! I work in a small school kitchen and I applaud you. Most parents
    I encounter don’t care enough. Many of our students DO NOT get fresh fruit at home
    and don’t have a clue as how to eat it. We have the advantage of time to prep our fruits and vegetables. We are part of the fresh fruits and vegetable program that supplies
    grant money to pay for food and our prep time. They get this in the morning .
    99 % of our students arrive by bus, so a breakfast plan is still in the making. Our elementry kids now look forward to this snack in the morning and teachers rave about the improvements in attention. Don’t be afraid to approach the administration if the
    kitchen staff is giving you the cold shoulder .

    Reply

  14. Go Sally! You’re amazing. I’m an occasional lurker on your blog, but I am so impressed by this post (and what you did) that I had to cheer. This is so awesome on so many levels, and I love that you got a child to try his first pear!

    Reply

  15. I cannot believe I have never read your blog!!! All these years seeing you at the rec center and I had no idea! My youngest is now 15 – but when she was 5 – I was the mom bringing orange slices or bananas and water – everyone hated when I had soccer snack. I was so relieved when at 8 she started playing travel soccer and the coaches preach good health and healthy habits. I love your blog and am so excited to have found it!
    Nice job Sally – this is really great!

    Reply

    • Thanks Maria, for such a nice comment. Glad to hear that the coaches might start requesting healthier stuff as the sports get more competitive and serious!

      Reply

  16. I live across the street from Sherman Elementary school, and i would love to be a FRUIT Ninja….

    Reply

  17. What a great idea! Thank you for sharing! I will suggest this to our school either the ninjas or the baskets since we have an issue with hunger in the schools maybe leftover fruit can be collected and sent home with children who get backpacks sent home.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  5. […] I’ve seen some decent items, like scrambled eggs in tortillas. But in heavy rotation are also Trix yogurt and Cookie Crisp. The hot item is individually-packaged: sausage biscuit sandwiches, fruit pastries, and “strawberry splash” pancakes. The fruit is frequently whole oranges, which the kids used to throw away until we began the Fruit Ninja program earlier in the school year (read “Fruit Ninjas: A Simple School Wellness Program.“) […]

    Reply

  6. […] 3. Offer solutions, not criticisms: It’s easy to spend meeting time railing against sugary school breakfasts or limited recess time (I know, I’ve done it!). But instead of griping about it, dig in and figure out what you can do. Can you meet with the school foodservice director to talk about the menu? Can you propose an active class reward like a dance party? When I got mad about all the whole apples and oranges being thrown away by students at breakfast, I organized parents to cut up the fruit instead. We called ourselves the Fruit Ninjas, and the program is still going five years later (read about it here). […]

    Reply

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