Thesis Karlijn Koudstaal (2010) 'From Field to Table'

“From Field to Table”

Children’s View on and Participation in Food Education and Production

Thesis by Karlijn Koudstaal Project number: 2010219 Amsterdam, June 2010

FoodShare

Bachelor Nutrition and Dietetics University of Applied Sciences (HvA) Amsterdam

- Page 2 -

Colophon

“From Field to Table”

Children’s View on and Participation in Food Education and Production

Amsterdam, June 2010

Project number

2010219

Author

Karlijn Koudstaal [email protected] [email protected]

Supervisors

Drs A.J. de Graaf-Croes Department of Nutrition and Dietetics Hogeschool van Amsterdam Dr. Meurerlaan 8, 1067 SM Amsterdam The Netherlands

M. Hayes Field to Table Schools and Youth Program Manager 90 Croatia Street, Toronto, ON M6H 1K9 Canada

- Page 3 -

- Page 4 -

Preface and acknowledgements This thesis, to graduate for my studies in Nutrition and Dietetics of the University of Applied Sciences (Hogeschool van Amsterdam) has emerged from a research project conducted in Toronto, Canada. A year ago, I initiated contact with the Toronto FoodShare organization intended to elucidate food and nutrition patterns among school students. From January till the end of April, I participated as a member of FoodShare and I conducted fieldwork at James S. Bell Junior Middle school in Toronto. Looking back, I really appreciated being a student and a member of the FoodShare crew and being a researcher at James S. Bell. It is a pleasure to thank all the people who have contributed to this research and who made my stay in Toronto so pleasant. To my supervisor and professor, Justine de Graaf, thank you very much for all your help and positive energy during my study and my graduation. I want to thank all the wonderful people at FoodShare, especially Meredith Hayes (my main supervisor at FoodShare) and Lori Nikkel. Everyone from FoodShare made my stay in Toronto an unforgettable experience. I hope to stay in touch with them and that they will continue their incredible work for ever. I want to thank my family very much, both in Toronto and in Amsterdam. My family in Toronto has helped me in every way I ever could imagine and I really loved to spend time with them. I will always have great memories of all the things we have done together and I hope to see them soon. Without my family in Amsterdam, I could never have conducted my research. They supported me in every way, helped me and always gave me good critical advice. I special thank you to my mom and dad; they are always there when I need them. Last but not least, my gorgeous friends in Amsterdam, who always believe in me. And my new friends in Toronto, who I spent the most amazing times with in the City of Toronto

- Page 5 -

- Page 6 -

Summary Toronto is enforcing active policy to promote food and healthy lifestyles. This qualitative research is focused on the meaning children (8-11 years), at an elementary school in Toronto, attributed to food and healthy food. The approach is from a child-centered perspective; children themselves are the focus of the research (the respondents). These children are offered an extensive education program on food, Health Education with cognitive lessons, participation in food production by working in the school garden and consummation by a daily fresh healthy lunch. Most of the children know much about food, products and quality in relation to health. They have a good understanding of which products are healthy or unhealthy. Most of them enjoy working in the school garden. Workshops are organised on composting. All the children like the fresh healthy lunch at school in particular. By daily attention for food in the school curriculum and the coordination and integration of different education forms, food is seen as an important part that influences people’s health. Alienation of food and food production seem to be fought by these programs on food education. The difference between knowing and actual behaviour, between knowledge of good food on the one hand and responsible choices for food on the other hand, seems to become smaller. Obviously, the influence of the family plays a role. A conscious food choice supported by the parents activates children and improves their scores on all aspects, in knowledge, in appreciating the school garden, making responsible food choices and living a healthy lifestyle.

Samenvatting Toronto voert een actieve politiek om voeding en een gezonde levensstijl te bevorderen. In dit kwalitatieve onderzoek is gekeken naar de betekenis die kinderen (8-11 jaar) op een basisschool in Toronto geven aan voedsel en gezond voedsel. Er is voor een ‘child-centered’ perspectief gekozen; kinderen zelf staan centraal (de respondenten). Deze kinderen krijgen een uitgebreid educatie aanbod over voeding, cognitieve lessen over voeding en gezondheid, participatie in voedsel productie in de schooltuinen en consumptie van een dagelijks warme lunch. De kinderen blijken veel te weten over voeding, producten en eigenschappen in relatie tot gezondheid. Ze hebben een goed besef wat gezonde en ongezonde producten zijn. De meesten vinden het werken in de schooltuinen erg leuk. Er worden aparte workshops gegeven over compost maken. De lunch op school wordt door allen erg aantrekkelijk gevonden. Door de dagelijkse aandacht voor voeding in het schoolprogramma en het samengaan en op elkaar afgetemd zijn van verschillende vormen van educatie wordt voeding gezien als een belangrijk onderdeel wat invloed kan hebben op de gezondheid van mensen. Vervreemding van voedsel en productie lijkt door deze programma’s over voeding tegengegaan te worden. Het verschil tussen weten en gedrag, dus tussen kennis en verantwoorde keuzes maken in het eten, lijkt kleiner te worden. Wel is duidelijk dat de invloed van het gezin een grote rol speelt. Als bewuste voedselkeuze van thuis uit ondersteund wordt, zijn kinderen actiever en scoren ze in alle opzichten beter in kennis, in waardering van de schooltuinen, in het maken van verantwoorde voedselkeuzes en het hebben van een gezonde levenswijze.

- Page 7 -

- Page 8 -

Contents Colophon ........................................................................................................................................................................3 Preface and acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................................5 Summary .........................................................................................................................................................................7 Samenvatting ..................................................................................................................................................................7 Contents ..........................................................................................................................................................................9 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................ 11

1.1. The research perspective ............................................................................................................................... 12 1.2. The aim of this research ................................................................................................................................ 13 1.3. The research place .......................................................................................................................................... 13 1.4. Research questions ......................................................................................................................................... 14 1.5. Relevance ......................................................................................................................................................... 14 1.6. Outline.............................................................................................................................................................. 15

2. Research Methods and Techniques..................................................................................................................... 17 2.1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................................... 17 2.2. The general research design.......................................................................................................................... 17 2.3. Methods ........................................................................................................................................................... 17 2.4. Conclusion....................................................................................................................................................... 19

3. The institutional setting: FoodShare, Field to Table Projects, James S. Bell Junior Middle school ......... 21 3.1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................................... 21 3.2. Foodshare ........................................................................................................................................................ 21 3.3. Field to Table Schools Program................................................................................................................... 24 3.4. James S. Bell Junior Middle School ............................................................................................................. 26

4. Research Results..................................................................................................................................................... 29 4.1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................................... 29 4.2. Aim 1. Knowing the child, name, age, sex and neighbourhood ............................................................. 29 4.3. Aim 2. To get a vision of what they regard as healthy and unhealthy products. To get insight into their motivations to choose food products and how the children order the offered products. ............... 32 4.4. Aim 3. To know what they think about the different projects and programs about nutrition and food. To understand what they see as healthy and unhealthy food. ............................................................. 35 4.5. Aim 4. Succession of words: to tell what the first association is in their heads speaking of healthy, unhealthy, tasty food and other aspects around food...................................................................................... 38 4.6. Aim 5. The adults’ perspective, two teachers and two parents. .............................................................. 42 4.7. Conclusion....................................................................................................................................................... 44

5. Analysis and Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 45 5.1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................................... 45 5.2. Questions ......................................................................................................................................................... 45 5.3. Conclusion....................................................................................................................................................... 48

- Page 9 -

6. Discussion and Recommendations ......................................................................................................................49 6.1. Different ways of education for achieving understanding and opinion of good and healthy food...49 6.2. The role of school gardens in this education program .............................................................................49 6.3. Separated workshops and specific actions ..................................................................................................50 6.4. Developing education materials....................................................................................................................50 6.5. The role of parents and the family ...............................................................................................................50

7. Appendixes...............................................................................................................................................................51 Appendix A: Permission by the Toronto District School Board ..................................................................51 Appendix B: Time schedule ..................................................................................................................................52 Appendix C: Agenda Overview Interviews James S. Bell ................................................................................53 Appendix D: Methods, Aims and Actions .........................................................................................................54 Appendix E: First session students - introduction and explanation Food Diary.........................................60 Appendix F: Second session students - Reflecting Food Diary + Drawing & Photographs + Real Products & Images .................................................................................................................................................62 Appendix G: Third session students - Drawing Elicitation Method + ‘Word-Game’................................64 Appendix H: Interview Teachers .........................................................................................................................67 Appendix I: Interview Parents..............................................................................................................................69 Appendix J: Food Diary ........................................................................................................................................71 Appendix K: Canada’s Food Guide ....................................................................................................................74

8. Literature and Notes...............................................................................................................................................75

- Page 10 -

1. Introduction Our western society (Europe and North America) can be typified as a consumer society. Over the last couple of decades our food production systems have made tremendous evolvements to provide people with more than enough food. The conscious choice for healthy food is not self-evident anymore. Meanwhile, there are a lot of problems concerning food: examples are obesity and diabetes.1 There is a discussion going on about food consciousness and food choices. Especially, children know very little about the origin of food (where it comes from), what it does to the body and the function in relation to food for being healthy and being unhealthy. Among children the rates of obesity and diabetes are rising more than ever. Food has become a ‘industrial’ product instead of a ‘natural’ product. Children become alienated from the natural base of food and food production. In this ‘passive’ society, (passive for food awareness) many children have no knowledge of the origin of food and the positive effects food can have on health.2

The aim of health policy in the Netherlands is to make people more aware of healthy living and healthy eating.3 Therefore, a lot of projects have been developed; young people are encouraged to learn more about healthy food and food quality. The goal is to make children more aware of their choices in relation to healthy food. They should be encouraged to be more involved in food production and food choices. Also, these projects mainly concern the future of these children from the perspective of an investment in their adult live stage. Examples of projects in Amsterdam are ‘Smaaklessen’ (‘Taste-education’) and ‘Schoolgruiten’ (‘Education about vegetables and fruit’).4 These projects seem to have positive effects, because children who participated show more interest in the origin of food (‘Taste-education’) and show more interest in the healthiness of food (‘Schoolgruiten’).5 Literature shows that attention to food in education has a positive effect on children.6 For my research, I like to find out how active participation of children in food production and education produce knowledge of origin and involvement in ‘good’ food.

Remarkable in this respect is the fact that problems concerning nutrition and knowledge of food production, are specifically found in and around big cities.7 Children living in villages and in the countryside have more knowledge about the origin of food, because they are more familiar with it in their daily life (more contact, more interaction). City agriculture can make an important contribution to this lack. City agriculture makes nutrition directly available in the nearby environment and makes people more aware of the origin and production of food.8

The lack of knowledge, under both children and adults, about the origin of food and the intake of healthy food is not only known in The Netherlands but also in other western countries. That is why it could be wise to conduct research in other countries than the Netherlands, on food problems among children. I chose Canada as a country for research. Canada started earlier than the Netherlands, to develop policy on awareness raising of the relation between food- and health problems and healthy and good food. The Ministry of Education of Canada developed Health and Physical Education.9 For each grade, curriculum documents are written. These curriculums are taught by teachers and define what students are expected to know and to experience at each grade level. The teachers have different kinds of curricula to follow. For the province Ontario, where I conducted research, these curriculum documents are titled “the Ontario Health and Physical Education Curriculum”. This document shows the physical and health literacy on what children have to know at the end of every grade. This curriculum is designed to teach every student

how to lead healthy, active lives and how to promote healthy, active living. One part of this Health and Physical curriculum is about nutrition and how to makehealthy choices regarding food. This means that in everygrade, students are taught about healthy food and are subjects of awareness r

aising. 10

ion

Toronto, the capital of Ontario, already started a renewing project in 1991, a policy program for more awareness raising of healthy and good food: Toronto Food Policy Council (TFPC).11 One of the partners of the TFPC is the successful non-profit organizatFoodShare (www.foodshare.net). This organization

- Page 11 -

offers different programs, including Field to Table Schools. Specific lessons, workshops, school food gardens and events about food are being given to children (and teachers).12 The main objective of the Field to Table Schools projects is to bring children ‘back’ to the origin of food, to put emphasis on local produced products, to raise awareness to processing of food and healthy food. The aim is to make children more aware about their food choices, in daily life now, as well as in the future.

The Canadian school system is different from the Dutch school system. To make it more clear, in the table below, I give an overview of the different grades related to age. 13

Name Grade Age

Kindergarten Elementary School

- 4/5 - 6

1 6-7

2 7-8

3 8-9

4 9-10

5 10-11

Elementary School

6 11-12

7 12-13

8 13-14 Junior High school

(Middle School) 9 14-15

10 15-16

11 16-17 Senior High school (Secondary School)

12 17-18

College or University above 18

1.1. The research perspective To graduate, for my study of Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Applied Sciences of Amsterdam (HvA), I conducted research to write my final thesis on Canadian children and food education. I approached the non-profit organization FoodShare in Toronto to conduct my research. The total time abroad in Canada was three and a half months. The aim of the research was to gather information, qualitatively, to ascertain how children express becoming aware of good, healthy food and the food production system through participating in the Field to Table Schools (FTTS) curriculum-linked programs. This research is conducted to obtain more information and to understand how young children, with the age of eight to ten years, think and what their knowledge is about healthy food. These children have been participating in several kinds of nutrition classes and programs. In chapter 2 of this thesis, ‘Research Methods and Techniques’, there will be a total overview of the research and the respondents (children).

Generally, education programs for children are constructed by adults on the bases of theoretical models as for instance Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development. These stages are seen by Piaget as cognitive stages from the child in interaction with the immediate physical environment.14 Other models come from critics of Piaget, for instance Rogoff ea, who take the social cultural approaches to these development stages of children into account. For them culture matters, but as something to learn for a child. In this approach, the child is a newcomer in society and culture and seeks to become a native by learning how to look at social reality.15

- Page 12 -

My approach is different. I don’t see children as learners who seek to learn culture but as culture producers. Children themselves produce culture, because they are active actors and participants, so this perspective is a child-centered perspective; children themselves have been the focus of the research. There have not yet been many researches from a child-centered perspective. This perspective has been developed since the eighties in the last century. Central in this perspective are children as active actors and participants in social live. We should not only speak about children and think for children, but also acknowledge their active role in creating social reality. Education programs about healthy food are constructed by adults. A child-centered perspective offers the possibility of participation in research by children. This perspective is self evident, because participation is the central theme of my research.16 I focus on participation not only in my research (participation of children as active respondents in the research), but also on learning by participation, not only by cognitive teaching and lessons, but also by teaching through participation in the production of good and healthy food. Beyond theoretical learning, active participation in Field to Table programming, specifically school food gardens and student nutrition programs, will provide valuable information and possibilities for participation. This makes a qualitative research valuable.

1.2. The aim of this research Food and healthy food is a human right in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Economic, social and cultural rights include the right to an adequate standard of living. Article 25, paragraph 1 of this Universal Declaration says:

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and wellbeing of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

The human right to adequate food is explicitly recognized as part of the broader human right to an adequate standard of living.17 The Convention of Children’s Rights knows Three P’s, Provision, (name, nationality, health care, food, education) Protection (from torture, exploitation etc.) and Participation (has a say in decisions affection their lives). This research starts from the position that healthy food is a human right and that children have a say in earning healthy food and education. This perspective and the focus on participation of children in this research make that this research is not an evaluation research. Evaluation supposes aims to be reached. In this research children are no objects but subjects. The aim of this research is to understand children’s views and to hear children’s voices 18 on good and healthy food in the context of their school education on good and healthy food.

1.3. The research place In consultation with my supervisor at FoodShare, Mrs. Meredith Hayes and the vice principal of the James Bell Junior Middle school in Toronto, Mrs. Wai Yin Mok, the decision was made to conduct my research at the elementary school James S. Bell.19 After permission by the Toronto District School Board, the participating students were randomly selected. More information about FoodShare, the Field to Table Program and James S. Bell Junior Middle school, is given in chapter 3.

before.... after....

- Page 13 -

In 2007 the elementary school James S. Bell began a small garden project which was expanded and enhanced in 2009 when FoodShare partnered with them to establish a larger school food garden. The name of this garden is “Footprint garden”; the garden has the shape of a footprint.

The students of James S. Bell pass a variety of workshops, activities, classes around food education, mostly for the Health and Physical curriculum. Besides these programs about food and nutrition, the students work in groups in the school garden and have learnt more about food production from garden design, composting, garden maintenance and harvesting. At the same time, the school offers different kind of food and nutrition programs like the Breakfast Club, the Hot Lunch Program and the Snack Program in the Afterschool Homework. These food and nutrition programs are funded in part by the city of Toronto and by the Ontario Ministry of Education through the school board. These programs are supported and monitored by nutritionists and public health nurses. The parents of the students have to decide that their child participate in these programs. About half of the participating students join the Hot Lunch Program. 20

1.4. Research questions My main question of the research

What does being a member of the FoodShare’s Field to Table Schools, including participation in the school food garden, mean to the students and how does this membership and participation affect their daily food intake behaviour and their overall understanding of good, healthy food?

Sub questions

1. What do the participating children remember about the nutrition programs, the school garden and classes about nutrition at James S. Bell.

2. What do these students eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks now?

3. How have these students appreciated their participation in these programs and the school garden project itself?

4. What are the students’ knowledge (understanding) and opinion of good, healthy food compared to unhealthy food?

5. Do the students think their food choices have changed as a result of participation in the nutrition programs, the school garden, and classes about nutrition?

6. Do the students feel their meaning of food, particularly good, healthy food has been changed as a result of participating in the Field to Table School programs?

The working hypothesis is that by participating in school food education and school food gardens, students at James S. Bell will obtain a clear understanding and opinion of good, healthy food. This research is exploratory and as a consequence it will be used to document the effect of the garden, classroom activities and nutrition programs. Broad implications on students’ overall health or changing habits cannot be made on the base of these results.

1.5. Relevance The relevance of this research is to get an impression of how students attribute meaning to good, healthy food after participating in food literacy and education programs such as FoodShare’s curriculum-linked, Field to Table Schools Programs. In Toronto many children in different school levels are participating in all kinds of activities around food education. FoodShare is working with many schools over several years and tries to focus on hands on programming that best connects children and youth to good and healthy food.

These results give the opportunity to write a report which will be presented to the Toronto District School Board, FoodShare and James S. Bell School. As mentioned, the results will show children’s views of good and healthy food. It concerns children who participated in different programs about food education and food production. For these participants, this research will provide a chance to understand what they think of this type of education, specifically their opinion of hands on education where participating is central. This research will focus really on the children instead of their parents and teachers. The results will provide insight into the way children evaluate this type of programming and education.

- Page 14 -

The common themes of this research will also be compared to the Netherlands. I will make recommendations for the Dutch food education. From a policy point of view, I will show what policy on food education in The Netherlands can learn from food education in Canada. From this point of view FoodShare offers a best practice which is operated at James S. Bell.

1.6. Outline In this thesis, first an overview of the used methods and techniques for conducting this research will be described. Second, the non-profit organization FoodShare will be described, followed by the contents of the Field to Table Schools program. Subsequently, the results of the research will be presented, followed by a conclusion and discussion. The thesis will end with recommendations for the Dutch situation and an overview of the literature. In the attachment relevant research material will be shown.

- Page 15 -

- Page 16 -

2. Research Methods and Techniques

2.1. Introduction My stay in Toronto, Canada, was from January 14 until April 26. When I arrived at FoodShare, I first participated in many projects of Field to Table Schools, for about two months. Besides this, I also joined many other projects at FoodShare and provided my services wherever I could. Owing to this, I expended to obtain a total view of FoodShare to gather enough information about this organization to be ready to conduct the research. The total time which was needed for the interviews was 4 weeks. Permission by the Toronto District School Board (http://www.tdsb.on.ca/) was necessary before the research could start. (See appendix A.)

This research was conducted at the James S. Bell Junior Middle School (elementary).21 Mrs. Wai Yin Mok, the Vice Principal of James S. Bell Public School, soon gave her permission. From the start, she was looking forward to have students participate in the research. The participating students were randomly selected. The interviews and data collection took place at this school itself. For the interviews, I needed a room with two large tables or three small tables, paper, coloured pencils and record material. In the beginning of July, I will present a report with the results of the research to the Toronto District School Board, FoodShare and the James S. Bell Public School.

2.2. The general research design This research has a qualitative character and the approach is from a child-centered perspective; children themselves were the focus of the research. The total time for the interviews was rated on 18 hours (see time schedule: appendix B), where in I talked with 12 children (4 from grade 3, 4 from grade 4 and 4 from grade 5), two teachers and two parents. The teachers who I interviewed are involved with the programs about food & nutrition and are part of the school garden project.

To have a complete picture, I finalized this research by two interview sessions with parents. These parents are involved with the school and school activities. To all teachers and parents who are involved with James S. Bell Public School, an invitation letter was sent to and they could participate in this research. On my last day at James S. Bell Junior Middle school, I had a short interview with Mrs. Wai Yin Mok.

I divided my interviews in different phases. I scheduled the time to conduct the research in multiple sessions so that the children did not lose focus during the sessions. I interviewed every child for approximately 30 minutes. These interviews were during school time and a schedule was designed following consultation with the teachers and school administration. The interviews with two parents and two teachers were about 45 minutes each. The interviews with the parents were at a time that was best suited the parents’ schedules; both interviews were after school hours. Also, the interviews with the teachers were held after school time. The total time of 18 hours was divided over four weeks and all interviews were recorded by a digital voice recorder device. (The agenda overview is shown in appendix C.)

2.3. Methods The illuminative objective, by qualitative research is primarily concerned with the description and exploration, rather than measurement and prediction. In comparison to adults, research to children asks for an altered approach. Questionnaires and surveys with children are complicated. Semi-structured interviews are more difficult in children research than in adult research. Children’s verbal expression and reflections are mostly not developed enough for answering interviews. Therefore, it was needed to use special techniques and methods to interview the children. Conducting this research I used the following methods. All these methods will be explained below.

- Semi-structured interviews

- Eating forms (Food Diary)

- Page 17 -

- Showing real products and Images of Food

- Showing Photographs

- Drawing Elicitation Method

- Word Association Elicitation Method

The semi structured interview explore the children’s experiences focusing on personal details about themselves, their age, sexes, family, friends and their actual eating pattern in daily life. The first interview session with the students was an introduction session. During this session I explained to the students what my research was about and I collected background information from them. Even with young children in interviews it is possible to collect concrete data as what children take as breakfast, as lunch, dinner and snacks. That is why, during the first session, I also gave the children a food diary which they had to fill in for one week.

Furthermore, I used a method with real products and images of real products. Presenting real products and images of food products as bread, butter, milk, vegetables, fruit, snacks, candy (see picture) give children the opportunity to make a choice in food and to elicit why they made that choice. With this method, I tried to know how the children make combinations in food products.

I asked them what they eat and in which groups they would put the products. They could choose from three groups: healthy, unhealthy and in between. I used this method during the second session (see appendix F).

Another technique which was used during the second interview session is the use of photographs from the school garden, taken last year. By showing photographs, the students can refresh their memories about their work in the school garden. James S. Bell had multiple photographs from all the activities and projects which were hold in the school garden. This methods gives triggers the children to talk about what they have done in the garden and what they have learnt.

Besides, I used two research methods, developed by De Bree et.al. in order to communicate in a child-friendly way: the Drawing Elicitation Method (DEM) and the Word Association Elicitation Method (WAEM).22 DEM was derived from the photo elicitation method (PEM) developed by Clark-Ibanez.23 PEM is a qualitative methodological approach; photographs are used as an interview technique. Informants are given a photo camera and an assignment to take photographs of a certain topic. After that, the contents of the pictures are discussed. However, for my particular research I needed to know children’s meaning attributing to food and healthy food. Taking photos of healthy food was not possible during school: I choose to work with drawings. Another advantage of children’s drawings is that their drawings present what they know. Children tend to draw what they know and not what they see, as adults do.24 I gave the assignments to make a drawing of what they saw as good and healthy food and a drawing of their thoughts of bad and unhealthy products. They also had the assignment to draw a situation or an experience which they remembered about participating in the school garden or during classes about food and nutrition. I discussed every drawing together with each child. In this way, drawings were a medium for elicitation of thoughts and a meant to discuss in children’s terms what they think and imagine. Moreover, I used the Word Association Elicitation Method as de Bree et.al. developed. I asked every student to tell what first popped in his/her head when I said a certain word. To become accustomed to the ‘game’, I started with some examples such as school, friends, TV, etc. Later, I presented words as vegetables, fruit, carrots, candy, cookies, chips, hamburgers (see appendix G). These answers elicited more information and gave insight into their perspectives of good and healthy food. WAEM was used to find out if they relate different meaning on food and how. The Drawing Elicitation Method (DEM) was used during the second interview session and the third interview session. The Word Association Method was used during the third interview session.

By using different methods, the validity of the research has been enhanced. Using different methods, triangulation, is important, especially for research from children’s perspective.

For the interviews with the teachers and parents I used semi- structured interviews. I wanted to know how they saw the results of children’s participating and their meaning of healthy and good food.

- Page 18 -

The relation between my different research methods, the aim of these methods and the elaboration is seen in the schedule below.

Methods Aim Elaboration

Semi-structured interviews + Eating forms (Food Diary)

Knowing the child, name, age, sex and neighbourhood.25

Discussion about their eating behaviour: breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks. Making an inventory and examining if they see changes in their food intake behaviour.

Showing real products and images of food

To get a vision of what they regard as healthy and unhealthy products. To get insight into their motivations to choose food products and how the children order the offered products.

Discussion about their choices, the offered products and their knowledge about healthy and unhealthy products.

Showing Photographs and Drawing Elicitation Method

To know what they think about the different projects and programs about nutrition and food. To understand what they see as healthy and unhealthy food.

Discussion by using the drawings about the projects and their opinions on healthy and unhealthy food and whether this is affecting their behaviour.

Word Association Method Succession of words: to tell what the first association is in their heads speaking of healthy, unhealthy, tasty food and other aspects around food.

Discussion by using first associations. To have a complete vision of their thoughts.

Semi-structured interviews with teachers and parents

The adults’ perspective, two teachers and two parents.

Discussion with two teachers and two parents on what their opinion is on food education.

2.4. Conclusion These methods together can be typified as Smith calls an ‘illuminative approach’. Such approach seeks to find patterns in responses and places individual findings within a broader context of the participating context.26 An overview of all the interview sessions with the different used methods, aims and actions are put together in a schedule (see appendix D). For the purpose of the discussion line, during the contact moments with the children and the adults (teachers and parents), I have developed a discussion guide for every session with all the asked questions (see appendix E - I).

- Page 19 -

- Page 20 -

3. The institutional setting: FoodShare, Field to Table Projects, James S. Bell Junior Middle school

3.1. Introduction In this chapter I will explain the institutional setting of my research. First of all, I will give a short description of the organization FoodShare with special attention to the Field to Table Projects. Second, I will give information on James S. Bell Junior Middle school where I conducted my research.

3.2. Foodshare

3.2.1. The organization

FoodShare Toronto is a non-profit community organization which’ vision is Good Healthy Food for All. FoodShare is a very unique organization in how they focus on the entire food system. In multiple ways, they provide food for people, nutrition education and programs (in general and at schools), stimulate communities development by bringing people together with urban agriculture (farming and markets) and provide job creation and training. FoodShare takes a multi-faceted, innovative and long-term approach to hunger and food issues.

Food is one of the basic aspects for a human to life. Together with water, air and housing it enables you to stay alive. All FoodShare projects promote awareness that fresh, whole food is a key to a good health, well-being and disease prevention. Long term systems can happen only with help and participation of community partners. Therefore, FoodShare works closely together and acts locally in partnership with hundreds of agencies and thousands of individuals providing direct services. FoodShare Toronto is Canada’s largest community food security organization, recognized as an important innovator of effective programs that have been reproduced all across Canada. They reach over 145.000 children and adults a month through subsidized fresh produce distribution, student nutrition programs, community gardening and cooking, classroom curriculum support, home made baby food workshops and the Focus on Food youth employment program.27

FoodShare began in 1985 by then Mayor of the City of Toronto, Art Eggleton. FoodShare was asked to report on why hunger was increasing, what could be done about it and what services could be created to provide information to people looking for a food bank. In that first year, FoodShare had a budget of $20.000 and a half time staff member. There has been a tremendous growth since the start in 1985. In 2009, FoodShare’s budget was 5.5 million and the staff had grown to over 50 full time staff supporting multifaceted programs modeling long term approaches to hunger and food issues. Because of the tremendous growth, in 2006, FoodShare relocated to a bigger building and became a tenant in a Toronto District School Board building, providing FoodShare with an opportunity to work with the school board and to become a destination for food education in the City of Toronto.28

3.2.2. Funding and donations

FoodShare can do their work because of funding and donations. In 2008, almost 50% of the funding came from individual donors and sales through the programs: Good Food Programs and Field to Table Catering. Some of FoodShare’s donors contribute through a monthly pre-authorized contribution, others periodically by credit card or cheque. Besides these donations of money, FoodShare also receives in-kind donations, from recipe books to trucks and gardening equipment. Another important part of the funding is FoodShare's status as a United Way agency. This is an important source of funds: donations from foundations, unions, churches and corporations. All this support makes it possible for FoodShare to continue its work with the community. In addition to the support provided by individual donors, FoodShare receives support from different levels of government: in 2008 that support came at all levels, municipal, federal and provincial. This funding often comes in the form of project grants, targeted to specific initiatives.29

- Page 21 -

Total Operating Revenues 2008: $4,500,073

- Federal $337,187 (7.5%)

- Provincial $199,261 (4%)

- Municipal (City of Toronto) $184,885 (4%)

- United Way $474,912 (11%)

- Foundations $1,135,810 (25%)

- Sales through our programs (Good Food Programs, Field to Table Catering) $1,472,450 (33%)

- Individuals $671,015(15%)

- Events $9,792 (0.2%)

- Interest $14,761 (0.3%)

3.2.3. Programs

FoodShare is a large organization which includes multiple programs, many of which rely on heavily on community involvement and volunteer support. FoodShare has an incredible amount of people who like to volunteer, some on a weekly bases and some only for special days. Without the help of these volunteers, it is impossible to do all the work FoodShare does. All the different programs can be divided in four groups. To understand the FoodShare’s work, there is a short explanation about the programs and projects of these four groups.

Community Food Programs Student Programs Community Education & Information Resources Other Programs

3.2.3.1. Community Food Programs

This group can be divided in four different programs The Good Food Box Program, Toronto Community Food Animators, Community Gardening and Urban Agriculture and the Good Food Markets.30 31

The Good Food Box Program

The Good Food Box Program is an alternative distribution system that makes sustainable, local and affordable produce (fresh products) more accessible to Toronto’s communities, especially to area’s where fresh products are difficult to get. FoodShare buys fresh fruits and vegetables directly from farmers and from the Ontario Food Terminal. Volunteers pack all the produce into green reusable boxes. FoodShare has their own Warehouse where every Tuesday between 700 and 1400 boxes are being pack. During my stay at FoodShare I helped a few times packing the Good Food Boxes, these were amazing days working together with many volunteers.

Toronto Community Food Animators

The Animators project, engages individuals and communities in bringing to life food-focused projects, such as community gardens, fresh produce markets and community kitchens. This project is a partnership between FoodShare, the African Food Basket and The Stop Community Food Centre.

- Page 22 -

Community Gardening and Urban Agriculture

FoodShare works in partnership with the Toronto Community Gardening Network and the Community Food Animators to assist community groups in acquiring the knowledge, expertise and resources necessary to start up a community garden. Toronto has more than 120 community gardens supported by these networks.

Good Food Markets

FoodShare works in partnership with community organizations to run the markets. These markets sell high-quality and affordable fruits and vegetables. The Good Food Markets ‘bring healthy produce to neighbourhoods where it might not otherwise be available and where farmers’ markets are not viable, because sales are too low to cover farmers’ costs.32 These markets improve access to food and support local farmers. The markets have also been a great way to create stronger communities and provide a space for neighbours to gather around food.

3.2.3.2. Student Programs

This group can be divided in three different programs: Field to Table Schools Program, Student Nutrition Program and Fresh Produce Program. The Field to Table Schools Program will be explained in this chapter.

Student Nutrition

FoodShare is a partner in the Toronto Partners for Student Nutrition (TPSN) which includes Toronto Public Health, Toronto Foundation for Student Success, Toronto Angel Foundation, Toronto District School Board and the Toronto Catholic District School Board. TPSN supports over 500 local Student Nutrition Programs. FoodShare helps to ensure that more than 84.000 children and youth have access to healthy, culturally appropriate breakfast, snacks and lunches in their school and local community. Through workshops and training sessions, and ongoing support FoodShare’s Student Nutrition Program assists parents and volunteers to run these programs.

Kitchen Crusaders

The Kitchen Crusaders is a new project which started about one year ago and is part of the Student Nutrition Programs. Two employees who first were interns at the Focus on Food Intern Project, lead hands on and engaging workshops to get high school students involved in preparing food in their school’s student nutrition programs. The workshops focus on preparing good, healthy food, basic cooking skills and an introduction to grocery shopping. During my time at FoodShare I went with the Kitchen Crusaders to high schools (secondary school) to see their workshops.

Fresh Produce Program

This program helps to make produce affordable and accessible for Student Nutrition Programs in Toronto elementary, middle and secondary schools. Schools choose from a list of fresh produce that is available to order and have delivered directly to the schools.

3.2.3.3. Community Education & Information Resources

This group can be divided in two different programs: Healthy Babies Eat Home Cooked Food and the FoodLink Hotline.

- Page 23 -

Healthy Babies Eat Home Cooked Food

This program provides parents, especially mothers, with information about healthy eating for infants and toddlers how they can feed their babies healthy. The trainers speak many different languages and go out to different community groups.

FoodLink Hotline

FoodLink, is a partnership between FoodShare and Community Information Toronto (CIT), which fields over 500 calls per month from individuals looking for food programs in Toronto, like food banks, low-cost meals, community gardens, Good Food Market programs and other community food services.

3.2.3.4. Other Programs

Fresh lunch for FoodShare’s staff

Every day at FoodShare the staff from the kitchen prepare a fresh, healthy, nutritious lunch for all the employees and the volunteers who work that day at FoodShare. Everybody eats together in the same room and enjoys this moment.

Focus on Food Youth Intern Project

Focus on Food (Youth Interns) is a program for youth, between the ages of 15 to 30, who are facing barriers to employment. This program supports the participants to gain job and life skills necessary for them to make the transition to school or work. They work in multiple departments to get a total overview and to built up knowledge about different aspects like finance, administration, computers, nutrition, cooking and conflict-resolution. During my work at FoodShare I met some very nice interns of this program and worked many times with them together including leading a community kitchen workshop on Dutch cuisine.

Field to Table Catering and FoodShare Cooking Programs

Field to Table Catering offers various menus of fresh, healthy, affordable, multi-culturally sensitive and seasonal foods for sale to community organizations and other events of any size.

Toronto Kitchen Incubator

The two kitchens at FoodShare are fully-equipped industrial kitchens. One of these kitchens is available for a low hourly membership fee for small food businesses and non-profit community groups to start their business. This kitchen is also used for cooking classes by some high schools (secondary schools) and for workshops which are hold by the Field to Table School Program.

3.3. Field to Table Schools Program

3.3.1. Field to Table Schools

Important parts of FoodShare’s work are the Students Programs. FoodShare believes that food education and access to healthy food are critical to the health of all children and the youth. They have different programs specialized for schools, teachers and students. One of these programs is named Field to Table Schools. In this chapter there will be a short overview of the contents of the Field to Table Program. During my stay at FoodShare, I worked closely with all the employees who are responsible for this program. Meredith Hayes is the Field to Table Schools Coordinator. For my work in Toronto and for the research, Meredith Hayes was also my supervisor. I worked for the team of Field to Table Schools in several activities and workshop days during my stay in Toronto.

- Page 24 -

3.3.2. Workshops

Field to Table Schools Program works with children from Junior Kindergarten to Grade 12, providing workshops and resources on healthy eating and an understanding and experience of the whole range of the food system as a way of life. Field to Table Schools programming consists of many different kinds of workshops and activities facilitated both at FoodShare’s building and in-class. In-class means that employees from Field to Table School come over to the school and give the workshop to the students or the teachers get the literacy and workshops from FoodShare to give the workshop to the students themselves.

FoodShare has made many different kinds of workshops for all children of all ages. These workshop range from subjects such as food choices, healthy eating and nutrition education, food cycles, gardening, composting, animals in our food system, cooking and food preparation, food and the environment, biodiversity, supporting our local food system, and many more. There is an overview of several workshop provided by FoodShare on the website: www.foodshare.net. One workshop which is very popular at this time is: the Rotten Apple Party. This workshop is about how apples (and other foods) can be used for composting, the different stages of composting, worms and the food cycle. Children love this workshop and during my stay at FoodShare I assisted in delivering this workshop to students from different schools.33

3.3.3. Special days

Field to Table Schools also provides special days at FoodShare for children of all ages. The schools pay $5 for a full day workshop, including lunch or $3 for a half day in FoodShare’s kitchen, gardens, composting area and classroom. During these days, people from Field to Table Schools provide workshops, activities and games about the subjects mentioned before. A healthy fresh lunch is included in the price and is made in the FoodShare’s kitchen. The children really like these kind of special days; they learn a lot and have fun at the same time. I really enjoyed helping to facilitate the workshops during a few of these days while I worked for Field to Table Schools, especially the cooking-workshops in the kitchen.

3.3.4. Special day: The Great Big Crunch

This year, on Thursday March 11 over 50.000 students across Canada joined ‘The Great Big Crunch 2010’, as well as some students from Amsterdam and Morocco. All these students took at the same moment one big bite of an apple, towards healthy living through healthy eating. FoodShare organised this event for the third time. Every school or class in Canada could register at FoodShare to find information, workshops and activities about apples. Whether students participated in a total day with activities, an afternoon or just one ‘Great Big Crunch-moment’, the goal of this day is to get students excited and to highlight the benefits of eating healthy and delicious Canadian apples while learning a bit more about the fosystem.

od 34

During my stay at FoodShare, I translated multiple workshops and activities around apples from English to Dutch. Therefore, it was possible for two classes in the Netherlands to participate with the ‘Great Big Crunch’. The translation for ‘the Great Big Crunch day’ is ‘de Grote Knapperige Appelhap-dag’. In addition, one class in Morocco participated as well with help from Dutch-Moroccan friend. Even after four months, children of the Amsterdam school who participated are conscious about the special apple day. “Every day an apple keeps the doctor outside”, is what they still remember.

3.3.5. School gardens

The main objectives of the Field to Table School projects is to bring children ‘back’ to the origin of food, to put emphasis on locally produced products, raise awareness of good, healthy food in addition to how food is processed. The aim is to make children more aware of their food choices, now and in the future. This can be achieved by building food literacy through participation in food production in school food gardens and other urban agriculture programs, such as growing edible sprouts in the garden, etc.35

- Page 25 -

The school food gardens are another important aspect which can be organised by Field to Table Schools. In general, school gardens in Toronto are run by the schools and mostly in partnership with an organization like FoodShare. FoodShare has different funders to set up a school food garden in cooperation with the school. In the past funding for school food gardens has come from the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of Health Promotion, IntoHealth, the Trillium Foundation and private donors. The funding for the first ten gardens was allocated to schools in the winter of 2008. This included funding for building the gardens, some staff support, workshop training and material resources. In 2009, FoodShare’s network of school food gardens grew to include 12 new gardens. These gardens were Footprint Gardens, which were planted in the shape of a foot to complement lessons on ecological footprints. Each ‘toe’ of the foot shaped gardens was themed around food actions that schools and students could take to reduce their carbon footprints. These actions included rain water harvesting, composting organic gardening, supporting local farmers and planting fruit trees. James S. Bell Junior Middle School, which was the focus of this report, was one of the twelve footprint gardens and was also involved in the building of a small school food garden in 2007.

3.3.6. Composting: Soil Power!

Soil Power! is Field to Table School's newest project supporting the development of composting programs in Toronto District School Board schools. With funding from Earth Day Canada, Soil Power! aims to work on composting issues "from table to field" providing composting units that are approved by the school board and that support school gardens and other healthy urban agricultural systems with nutrient rich compost. FoodShare has partnered with students and staff at Maplewood High School to build ten, three cell compost bins that will be distributed to both elementary and secondary schools. FoodShare also provides training and resources to support the maintenance and integration of composting into the schools.36

3.4. James S. Bell Junior Middle School

3.4.1. James S. Bell

James S. Bell Junior Middle school is part of the Toronto District School Board. The Toronto District School Board is the largest school Board in Canada and the fourth largest in North America. They have nearly 600 schools and serve more than 250.000 students each year.37

At James S. Bell, there are about 380 students and 30 teaching and support staff. The staff makes sure to provide a safe, nurturing and stimulating environment with positive learning experiences to promote students’ social, emotional, intellectual and physical growth. James S. Bell offers a range of extracurricular activities to enhance and complement the students’ whole school experience. Programs about food and nutrition are giving by using the school garden and the Health and Physical Education developed by the Ministry of Education of Canada. Besides these programs the school offers different kind of food and nutrition programs like the Breakfast Club, the Hot Lunch Program and the Snack Program in the Afterschool Homework.38

3.4.2. Hot Lunch Program

The Hot Lunch Program started in 2005 and operates four days a week, from Monday to Thursday only. The Hot Lunch Program is parent council-driven. It was started because there was a need for hot, nutritious program for students attending a full-day school. The Hot Lunch Program purchases its fresh produce in bulk from the FoodShare suppliers. On Fridays, students who are part of the Hot Lunch Program have to bring their own lunch, but they will eat together. There is a wide variety of meals such as sandwiches, wraps, taco’s, meat, various pasta dishes, various vegetables and fruits and one serving of

- Page 26 -

chocolate or white milk. All menus are prepared according to the Canada’s Food Guide and every day the dishes are freshly cooked. The Salad bars on Wednesdays and Thursdays always offer salad items of four or more different colours. The monthly fee is $40 (€31,20). The Hot Lunch Program is a real success and the children are enthusiastic to be part of it. Also, the products from the school garden are used for the products made in the Hot Lunch Program. All the thrown away food goes into the compost system.39

- Page 27 -

- Page 28 -

4. Research Results

4.1. Introduction In this chapter the results from the interviews will be presented by using the schedule from chapter 2, Methods and Techniques. In this schedule the aims and elaborations for every method are given. To have a total overview of the results, I will first describe the aim and second the elaboration.

4.2. Aim 1. Knowing the child, name, age, sex and neighbourhood I interviewed twelve children in total: from three grades, each four students (grade 3, grade 4 and grade 5). The ages were between 10 and 12 years. Four students were boys and eight students were girls. Most students lived in the neighbourhood of the school named James S. Bell. Some students were bussed in from 10 or 12 blocks away. Other students lived further away, but used to go to the nearby daycares, and therefore had the right to attend this school.

Students of James S. Bell elementary had an economically diverse background, ranging from families living on government welfare assistance to quite wealthy families living in lovely lakeside mansions. There were more blue-collar working class families than white-collar middle or upper middle class. Culturally and linguistically, one quarter of the students spoke a language other than English at home. Of these, the majority of the families were of Eastern European background (Croatian, Serbian, Albanian, Romanian, Ukrainian, and Russian); and the remaining few were Asians (Tibetans, Philippinos, Chinese) and Africans. The majority of the families where English was the first language, came from New Foundland. A few families were of First Nations background.

4.2.1. Elaboration 1. Discussion about their eating behaviour: breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks. Making an inventory and examining if they see changes in their food intake behaviour.

During the interviews it was obvious that the children from grade 3 were younger than the other students. The difference in knowledge and communication between grade 4 and grade 5 was not as striking as it was between grade 3 and grade 4. Probably, grade 3 students were not yet completely capable in discursive terms. Children of grade 4 and grade 5 had more experience with food education at school. Five students in these grades (mostly girls) indicated that they ate differently now, compared to a few years ago and they expressed the ambition to continue eating differently. There was definitely more attention for healthy eating. When they were younger they had less knowledge of what is healthy food and what is not. By getting older, they started to realize what is good for your body and what is not. It turned out that most of the students tried to be more conscious about their food intake behaviour. Especially the girls started to focus on how they wanted to look on the outside: “I just ate whatever I liked. Now, when you’re older, you have to eat more healthy because you don’t want to look ugly and be fat.” “It is important to me to eat not that much junk food.” “We do learn lots of stuff in school, and it gets your attention, why and where it (products) comes from.”

4.2.1.1. Food Diary data

These data are based on the children’s food diaries. The children had to fill in a food diary for one week. An overview of their food intake by students of every grade is written below. The diaries provide knowledge about what the students ate and give insight into their choices. They do not show the exact amounts of what the students ate because this would not fit within the scope of this research. (Appendix J shows an example of what the food diary looked like.)

Grade 3

Breakfast

On schooldays during the week, all grade 3 students had breakfast. The children ate a chocolate chip muffin, or a bowl of cereal with milk or without, one or two slices of toast with one fried egg or with peanut butter. Some children had some small slices of fruit. For drinks, the children consumed a glass of

- Page 29 -

orange juice, or a cup of chocolate milk or regular milk and sometimes they did not drink anything besides their bowl with cereals and milk.

During the weekend, the children ate and drank more or less the same products for breakfast and the same amount of breakfast as during the week.

Snack (treat) (during the morning) Most students did not mention any snacks (treats) or drinks during the morning. This meant that after breakfast they did not eat until lunch.

Lunch

The student, who participated in the Hot Lunch Program, ate some pieces of fruit every day and vegetables for lunch. Also, she ate some other products like meat balls, small buns (bread), noodles, tuna dish or cheese. On Friday she brought her own homemade lunch: small pizza and a piece of white cheese. She always drank a small carton of milk. This is included in the Hot Lunch Program. The other students ate their homemade lunches: rice with meat, one large fish stick, rice and peas, pasta with tomatoes sauce, meat sandwiches, sandwich with fried egg, or grain bread with jam. Most of the times they also ate some small products like a small cup of popcorn, pieces of fruit or a piece of chocolate. For drinks they had a glass of water, chocolate milk or (apple) juice.

During the weekend, the children ate rice with potato and an orange, or a grilled cheese sandwich with plain butter, or one turkey leg with a piece of bread and strawberries. They drank the same drinks as during the week.

Snack (treats) (at school and during the afternoon)

At school, children often did not eat or drink anything after lunch and before arriving home. Sometimes they ate some snacks, like two small donuts, apple or vanilla pudding. Usually they did not drink anything, except for sometimes a glass of water.

When the children arrived home, they ate products like: fruit, ice cream, chips, grain bread with peanut butter, a cereal bar, cheese crackers or popcorn. Most times they consumed one of these. The students drank water, lemonade, apple juice, orange juice or a can of pop. According to the food diary, only two children out of four once drank a can of pop during schooldays. Pop is the word for soft drinks with no alcohol like Coca cola, Pepsi, orange soda, 7up, flavoured water, iced tea, sweet tea, ginger ale and sparkling lemonade.

During the weekend, most children drank a can of pop, a few glasses of juice and water. One child also had two cups of punch and one child drank two Boost drinks (nutritional energy drink). All children consumed more or less the same amount of snacks as during schooldays, but two children consumed some candy instead of the products they had during the week.

Evening

All children ate dinner, which includes meat or fish, potato or rice, most times vegetables or salad, sometimes fruits and a dessert like pudding or ice cream. They drank orange juice, milk or water with their dinner. Dinner in the weekends is about the same as dinner during the week. Only one student had a special drink: a Shirley Temple drink (non-alcoholic cocktail).

Grade 4

Breakfast

On schooldays during the week, all grade 4 students had breakfast. The students ate one or two pieces of (raisin) bread with butter, bread with butter and Nutella, cream cheese, raspberry jam or a bowl of cereals (Honeycomb or Co-Co wheats). They had a glass of milk, orange juice or water.

During the weekend, they ate more or less the same products as during a school week, only some children drank other drinks like hot chocolate and lemon with ice.

- Page 30 -

Snack (treat) (during the morning) No students had anything to eat or to drink during the rest of the morning.

Lunch

The student, who participated in the Hot Lunch Program, ate some pieces of fruit, vegetables or both every day. Also, she ate some other products like one burrito, one bagel with butter or pieces of cheese pizza. On Friday she brought her own homemade lunch: one cheese sandwich, one piece of bread with chocolate and a juice box (apple). The other students with their homemade lunches ate: one bun with cream cheese, bun with basil pesto and red pepper (Salad bar at school: part of the Hot Lunch), bagel with butter, two pieces of whole wheat bread with ham, bread with three scrambled eggs, salami sandwich with mustard, white rice with sausage and fruit and taco with lettuce, cheese and ketchup. Most children ate a piece of fruit every day as well. For drinks they had juice boxes, cartons of (chocolate) milk, bottles of Five Alive (juice with 5 fruits) and water.

In the weekend, most children had a different lunch than during the school week, for example: bread with eggs, grilled cheese sandwich, croissant, Greek gyros, cookies or one donut.

Snack (treats) (at school and during the afternoon)

Most students had nothing to eat or to drink after lunch and before coming home. Only one child had a piece of fruit one day.

When they arrived home, the children ate a piece of chocolate, fruits, homemade pumpkin soup, cheese bun, a bowl of cereal, rice crackers, cheese sticks, cookies or chocolate walnuts. Some days some children didn’t eat anything at all when they arrived home. They drank water, lemonade, juice or nothing.

In the weekend, the children ate snacks like popcorn, chocolate chip muffins, pumpkin seeds or Belgian waffles.

Evening

For dinner, the children ate meals like spaghetti with corn, rice with beans, rice with vegetables, cheese burrito with chicken, lettuce and tomato, a piece of garlic bread and spaghetti with tomatoes and meat, noodles, soup, meatballs and bread and salad, meat with mashed potatoes and salad or slice pizza and pineapple. One student, whose parents were on a special diet, ate fish or meat every dinner, with rice or potato, beans, many vegetables or salad and soup. It was very clear that she had a varied and healthy diet. All children drank water, juices or milk.

During the weekend, the children ate ‘easier’ dinners like smiley potatoes with chicken fingers, white bread with hot dogs and brown beans or pancakes with strawberries. After dinner most children ate a piece of chocolate, muffin or another snack

Grade 5

Breakfast

On schooldays during the week, almost all grade 5 students had breakfast every day, except for two students who had no breakfast one day in the week. The children ate a waffle, granola bar, cinnamon raisin bread with butter, sandwich with Nutella and a spoon of flex seed oil, a piece of fruit, a bagel, 3 oatmeal cookies, pita with peanut butter or a cheese sandwich. They drank milk, chocolate milk, water, juices or nothing.

During the weekend, the children’s eating habits were slightly different: eggs (omelette), eggs with ground beef, bread with Philadelphia cream cheese or a bowl with Fruit Loops (cereal). The drinks were the same as during the week.

Snack (treat) (during the morning) Most students did not drink or eat anything. Only one student once had a banana and one student once had a chocolate pudding and a mini cheese muffin (she had no breakfast that day) and drank a juice box (apple) another day .

In de weekend, the children ate crackers, fruit or nothing in between. They drank milk, water or a glass of juice.

- Page 31 -

Lunch

The students who participated in the Hot Lunch Program ate some pieces of fruit, vegetables, or both every day. Also, they ate macaroni with cheese and ketchup, burrito or taco with meat, cheese and lettuce, pieces of shrimp, coleslaw, a bagel with butter or slices of cheese pizza. They always drank a small carton of (chocolate) milk. On Friday one of them brought her own homemade lunch (the other students were not at school that day): two mini pizzas and cucumbers. The other students with their homemade lunches ate: cheese sandwiches, Kit Kat bar, sandwich with cream cheese, slice of pizza and fruit, salami sandwich and cucumber or Rice Krispies. For drinks, they had a juice box, a can of coke or a carton of chocolate milk.

During the weekend, they ate a little differently than during the school week: chicken fingers, fries and ice cream, a Subway sandwich with cheese and salami, a salad, hummus with crackers and homemade biscuits, a plate of risotto and fruit or a bowl of cereal (Honeycomb). They drank pop, (choco) milk or water.

Snack (treats) (at school and during the afternoon)

Most students had nothing to eat or to drink after lunch and before they came home. One time one girl ate a granola bar and drank some water.

When they arrived home they ate a chocolate pudding with fruit, cones of ice milk, a bowl of cereal (Honeycomb or Honey nut cheerios), fruit, white beans with one drumstick, chocolate eggs, parmigiano cheese, pieces of candy or chips. They drank: glasses of juice, milk, water or lemonade. Some children ate a different snack in the weekend like: chocolate granola bar, tortellini or a slice of pizza. Some children drank two cans of pop.

Evening

For dinner, the children ate: pasta with drumstick and salad, taco’s with ground beef and cheese and lettuce, eggplant casserole, chicken sandwich with fruit salad, sandwich with cheese and salami, scrambled eggs with salad and bread, pork with fries, fish with fries, pasta and salad or slices of pizza. For drinks they had milk, chocolate milk, water, tea, juice, pop, ice tea and one child drank a Shirley Temple (see before).

In the weekend, the children ate different dinners like: steak with salad, mussels and shrimps and fish with coleslaw, fries with chicken fingers, chicken wings, macaroni and meat or chicken noodle soup. For drinks they had: tea, chocolate milk, water or pop.

4.3. Aim 2. To get a vision of what they regard as healthy and unhealthy products. To get insight into their motivations to choose food products and how the children order the offered products.

The students had to divide several products into three groups: healthy, unhealthy and in between. There were many pictures of all kinds of products, from frozen dinners to fresh fruits, different kinds of fast food, pieces of meat, vegetables, snacks and drinks. All students were confident to put the pictures of

fruits and vegetables in the healthy group. There was no doubt in that. Meat, fish, eggs, milk, cheese, brown bread were considered healthy too. Also, it was immediately clear for them to put the products like pop, French fries, ice cream, candy, chocolate cookies, brownies, pie and chips in the unhealthy group. Pizza and hamburgers were divided or in the unhealthy group or in the in between group. Plain cereals and granola-bars were mostly put in the in between group or in the healthy group. Drinks like fruit juices were most of the time seen as healthy, but many students knew there is a lot of sugar in it, which made it unhealthier. Water was believed to be healthy by everyone.

Eight children from different grades sometimes took a look at the back of products’ packages to read the food label. They did not totally understand what words like ‘carbs’ meant, but they knew what the calorie

- Page 32 -

amount said and that high amounts of sugar were unhealthy. Eleven students recognized the picture of the Canada’s Food Guide. (See appendix K.) Only one student did not recognize it in the beginning, but during the third session he remembered something about it. “It helps you eat healthier” he said. It turned out, they liked to talk about whether products were healthy or not. All the children knew they had to eat healthy products on a daily base and unhealthy products only ones in a while. Healthy food was normal food and was seen as the standard for daily food intake: “Only sometimes you can eat unhealthy products.” “If you eat like one slice of pizza like every three weeks, it is not gonna hurt you, it is not gonna do anything bad, You’re not eating like a lot.”

4.3.1. Elaboration 2. Discussion about their choices, the offered products and their knowledge about healthy and unhealthy products.

Multiple times, in different ways, the students were asked why products are healthy or why products are unhealthy. The children liked to describe for every individual picture why it is healthy or not. Some pictures, like sandwiches or total meals, were made out of several kinds of products. The children studied the pictures very closely, in order to see the composition, and they based their decision on the different products shown at the picture. For example, when there was a picture of white bread with eggs and bacon, they first mentioned the white bread, of which all children knew it is less healthy than brown (whole wheat) bread. Second, they mentioned the eggs, which were known as healthy by all children. And third, the bacon which was healthy for some children and unhealthy for other children. Therefore, the egg sandwich with bacon was put in all of the three different groups: healthy, unhealthy and in between. It depended on the individual children’s view and knowledge if some products were seen as healthy or not. It was remarkable that all children were clear about their opinion on Fruit Loops (a special cereal); they put this product in the unhealthy group or in the in between group. This product seemed to them to have ‘fruit’ in it, which is healthy, but it also has a lot of sugar, which is very unhealthy. The fibres in it are healthy, therefore, most children put this product in the in between group. The students knew that deep frying is unhealthy, so most children made the difference between French fries and pieces of baked potatoes. The French fries were classified as very greasy and unhealthy.

Both words, junk food and fast food, stood for unhealthy products. Students described junk food as: “the stuff that is bad for you, like JUNK.” Fast food was described as products from MacDonald’s, which are very high in salt. Another student mentioned that fast food has a lot of fat and cholesterol. “You should not eat junk food: junk food is unhealthy”.

Surprisingly, only two students recognized spinach, but no student knew about kale. Most of the times, they recognized both these vegetables as lettuce.

General remarks heard were: “Vitamins are good for you. They are helpful to your body.” “Pop in general is quite unhealthy, they have a lot of calories and fat, you could survive on water, we don’t need them, it is not part of our health. The people back then did not need them and they were healthy. Now, we just have them, but we don’t need them.”

It turned out, for all grades it was sometimes very difficult to properly understand the nutritional facts and words. Grade 5 and the girls in grade 4 knew most about specific nutritional details. Grade 3 and some students in grade 4 knew some details about specific nutritional facts, but it happened often that they confused nutrients with other words or that they thought they knew facts which were actually untrue: “Salt is part of cholesterol, so I think that clogs up something too.” “Iron cleans up your blood” “Bread is like wheat, and wheat is like a little bad for you”. “If you drink at least two types of pop a week, you have a high change of brain cancer.”

Specific questions

What do healthy products do to your body? It was clear to all children that healthy products give your body the right amount of energy. The students made a definite distinction between the energy you get from healthy products and the energy you get from unhealthy products. Ten out of the twelve children mentioned the ‘sugar-rush’. They explained that the ‘sugar-rush’ acts only in unhealthy products. It meant that, for a short amount of time, your body gets a lot of energy but after this time, there is no real energy left. Healthy products by contrast, give you energy which is slow enough to be effective for a longer time. So, you will not get tired. “Healthy products help you get energy, but it won’t slow you down, helps you be that stronger. Because if you eat a lot of junk food, it makes you sort of weaker.”

- Page 33 -

Another important aspect of healthy products was that it will not make you sick and it will not make you fat. “All the fruits and vegetables should go in the healthy group, because they’re something you need in every diet, without these you would either grow really fat or your energy will go really low.” “Vitamins help your body grow’. Healthy products give you nutrients. The children could not give a proper explanation of what nutrients are, although it seemed to be something healthy. “It is healthy because it gives you nutrient. I don’t really know what nutrients are: it helps you, it is good. It doesn’t give you fat, well sometimes if you eat too much it can.” “Basically, makes it so you won’t get sick. You’re teeth won’t rot. “It helps because it also gets you energy.” “Fibres help you poo, I’ve heard.”

What do unhealthy products do to your body? All the students were entirely clear about the high amount of sugar in unhealthy products. In all the children’s opinion there was too much sugar in all the pictures of unhealthy products. Sugar seemed to be a very negative word to the students and was bad for your health. They were sure that if someone eats too much sugar, it could make him overweight and rot his teeth. “Usually, when you eat a lot of sugar it just sort of powers you up and then it slows you down after a while.” “Sugar is bad.” “Sugar will also make fat in your body” “Ice cream is not very good to eat, it’s yummy, but it’s not good to eat every day. It gives you lots of sugar, you can get hyper sometimes. It gives you calories, you could gain pounds.”

The word ‘fat’ was also known by all students. They all understood that unhealthy products with a lot of fat will make you fat and overweight. They made the connection with overweight and not running as fast as normally. Also, when you are overweight you have the possibility to get ‘sick’. Most students did not refer to being really sick, but for example, to having pain in your stomach. Four out of twelve children talked about clogging your veins and diabetes. One child mentioned the connection between a heart attack and unhealthy products. One student knew that saturated fat and trans fat are the most unhealthy types of fat. “Chips, burgers are turning into fat easy, it sort of slows you down, it sort of sits in your body and it is not burned off.” “If you eat too much, it will make you a little sick.” “Fat sometimes is healthy, people do need fat.”

Some children mentioned that healthy products can have lots of salt and are oily, for example, with French fries. “A lot of salt is not good for you, but a little bit can be good for you.” “A lot of oils on it is not good too, it gets greasy.”

Can you taste if a product is healthy or unhealthy? Some children said that they cannot taste it if a product is healthy. Others mentioned that unhealthy products contain more fat, which you taste as ‘greasy’. Also, unhealthy products can taste very salty and are ‘sticky’. “I don’t think it has anything to do with the taste, both (healthy and unhealthy) can be delicious, it’s just like they’re healthy and they’re unhealthy, that is probably just the difference and what is in it.”

Can you tell by the looks of a product if it is healthy or unhealthy? This question was not answered unambiguously but in a rather contradictive way. “Yes, because I have the knowledge, I know meat is healthy, so when I see meat it is healthy”. “No, only, if you look at the back of the product.”

Do you like to know if a product is healthy or not? All students made clear that they liked to know if a product is healthy. “You need to know what you are eating.”

Eating healthy All children stated that they d enjoyed eating healthy. Of course, some students did not like several healthy products, because of the taste. There are always some products they will eat and which are healthy. Moreover, the students who were very interested in health and nutrition in general, seemed to like to eat more healthy. These children did not mention to dislike any healthy products. “Yes, I like to eat healthy, because I do a lot of exercise.” “It’s important to eat healthy for your growth, to become taller.”

Eating unhealthy The children liked to eat unhealthy products sometimes. As described above, the children knew that they should not eat unhealthy products too often, but they all agreed that unhealthy products are tasty. Only one student did not eat unhealthy as much as the other 11 children, since her parents were on a special diet.

- Page 34 -

It was entirely clear that most products from the unhealthy group cannot grow in a garden whereas most healthy products come from the garden. To everyone it was very clear that all fruits and vegetables are grown in a garden. The students also made a difference between fresh products and ‘made’ products. Some children called these ‘made’ products ‘factory products’. A few children could make the connection between health and products from the garden by themselves, one from grade 3, grade 4 and 5. “Unhealthy products are ‘made’. ” “You can’t grow chicken, but all vegetables and fruits you can grow.” “It has added things, because it is packaged, more salt and fat and stuff.” “Fresh fruits are very healthy, they’re natural, they’re not frozen, that makes a difference.” “These products come from the dirt.” “I don’t think any product from the garden is unhealthy, maybe one odd one I have never heard of.”

In particular, one girl from grade 4 and the students from grade 5 indicated that some children of the same age, do not have parents who are aware of the food they give their children, or parents who don’t talk to their children about food. Health Education and the other programs about nutrition are than the only way to learn about what is healthy. “It gets your attention.”

“The longer you talk about it in class, the more people will lower down in eating unhealthy products, maybe not totally stop, but lower it down. Some people eat MacDonald’s a few times a week and that is not good.” “I know some people in the world don’t really care what they eat, but they’re doing something bad to themselves.” “For some kids, Health Education can make them think twice. But for some kids, they are just fooling around: ‘Ahh yeah whatever, I don’t like good food,’ so they only want to eat what they like. These kids can become overweight.”

4.4. Aim 3. To know what they think about the different projects and programs about nutrition and food. To understand what they see as healthy and unhealthy food.

Students, who spoke about food and nutrition at home with their families, had most knowledge about healthy and unhealthy products. Moreover, they also remembered more about the different projects and programs about nutrition and food, compared with the students who did not discuss food and nutrition at home. Their interests in health and nutrition in general seemed to be a little higher. About half of the students in my research sometimes spoke with their parents, or their brothers and sisters, about healthy food and nutrition.

Health and Physical Education Physical Education is about sports and activities. Health Education is about nutrition and food and about development. It turned out that repeating the literacy on nutrition during Health Class had the most effect on what children remembered well. This counted for all students from different grades. Most children remembered some parts of the Health Education, but often they told me that they had forgotten what they learnt. They mostly remembered the literacy about which products are healthy and which are unhealthy to eat, food intake (portions), the food groups, food boxes and food labels. It was clear that the average grade 5 student remembered the most of these Health classes and they had the most knowledge about the different subjects they had learnt.

Another aspect which had made an impact, in particular on the children of grade 4, was the literacy on calorie-intake. All the girls from grade 4 remembered well how they compared the amounts of calories and the nutritional facts of fast food, like a big Mac, with the daily calorie intake amount. “We learnt about what calories do and how many calories you need a day.” “Don’t eat a big Mac for dinner and than go to sleep, because the calories can build up.” “Ever since we looked at food labels during class, I just started looking at them twice or three times as much as I normally did.” “You have to watch the portion, because it might be like three times in there.”

All students learnt about the Canada’s Food Guide and what it is about. By using this clear picture as an overview of what is healthy to eat, it became clear to these young children. “The Canada’s Food Guide, you learn what you should eat.” “You learn about food groups, what is more healthy”

The students indicated that they learnt much of their knowledge about healthy food and nutrition because of Health Education. They had a positive attitude towards these kinds of classes and most children like to learn more about nutrition and food. During the interviews, only one student mentioned Health class as “boring”. Particularly for the children who liked to know more about these subjects, it gave them

- Page 35 -

information to think about and they even considered to change their own behaviour sometimes. “I find it’s fun learning about how to treat your body right and for when I get older, I know how to do it.”

School garden Most children enjoyed working in a garden. These students thought very positively about the school garden. Of last year, the students remembered the planted products of the garden: tomatoes, pumpkins, fruits, gigantic sunflowers and other flowers. Every student of the school had to help building and creating the school garden. It depended on their grade what they did. Different tasks were: measuring and building the garden, turning the ground, growing seedlings in the classroom, planting the seedlings in the garden, the harvest fest and the composting. “Everyone touched at least one peace of dirt.” All the products which were ready to harvest were used for the Hot Lunch Program. “One day, in the morning, I went with Miss Mok to the garden and we got back with a bin full of vegetables!”

As mentioned above, most students remembered some parts of their work in the garden, but just like in Health class, some students totally forgot about the activities in the garden. Especially, the students who were very interested in gardening, remembered the most. These students stated clearly that they would like to learn more about gardens and working in the garden next year. “I would like to know how to treat a garden the right way, I know about watering the plants, but I don’t know how you can put in some special dirt and what to do if some plants are starting to die.”

In every grade, two out of four children were very interested in gardens and gardening. One out of four enjoyed to work and be in a garden and the last one out of four only liked to be in a garden but was not interested in gardening at all. The things the children enjoyed about working in the garden were: to be outside, to be with friends, planting flowers, to be ‘proud’ of yourself for making a garden beautiful, harvesting and using the products from the garden, to see how beautiful it can be and how ‘alive’ a garden can be. The students who enjoyed to work in a garden did not have anything they did not like in the garden, only one girl mentioned she did not like the insects so much. “Working in the garden makes me feel that I’m helping the world.”

Some children said, they definitely took the things they had learnt in the school garden home with them to their own gardens. Besides this, working in the garden proved to be a great way to have classes and to learn new things. “I thought it was a good experience for everyone who helped because it is just like, I have a feeling, some kids might not even have one flower planted in their yard.”.

It turned out that some children did not like to work in a garden. In my research there were two children who explicitly said they did not like it, so already at this age, children display a clear preference for one activity or the other (opinion on why they do not prefer to work in a garden). Some have interests in other subjects than a garden. These students like to be in a garden and to use the products from the garden as their food, but they do not like to do the ‘hard’ work like planting. They based their opinion on their experiences from the past. “I like it, but I don’t like to work in it, because it’s dirty and hard work. I would have been tired really quickly.” “It looks beautiful, but if I would actually sit there and work in it, I am not a big fan.”

When I asked the students to describe their own imaginary garden they all saw a beautiful garden with the products they knew. It seemed, all children liked to have fresh products in the garden. Only one student said to have only flowers in the garden. All students liked to tell their families about their beautiful garden and to share this with them. “It would look pretty, lots of roses, other flowers, fruits.” “It’s beautiful, it’s nice and it has lots of vitamins and lots of food that we could eat.” “I’ll tell her (my mother) to buy me pumpkin seeds.”

The Hot Lunch Program Five out of the twelve students, during my research, were in the Hot Lunch Program. Another two students were in the Hot Lunch Program last year. The children indicated, they did not learn about good and healthy food during the Hot Lunch Program, even though they only ate healthy products. All the children participating in the Hot Lunch had to put different ‘colours’ of products on their plates, like vegetables. Because of the Hot Lunch, some children may have gotten in touch with products they would normally not have eaten at home. Also, by throwing the leftover food in the compost bins, they sawe the importance of composting. A few children, who were participating in the Hot Lunch Program, were also in charge of the compost system outside. These children learnt a lot about how to complete the food cycle. “You come in and you put your coat down on the tables and then you get a plate from one of the helpers. You have two tables to take your food from, there is a variety of food.”

- Page 36 -

In summary, every student was very positive about the quality of food and about being part of the Hot Lunch Program. They enjoyed the fresh healthy food, even if sometimes they did not like some products. “Yes, I like it, they really cook good food there.” There were only two comments given by one of the students. These comments involved the amount of children getting together in the lunch room at the same time. “I would like to change how many kids they let in at one time, because there is a long line and it will take a while to get in and if you let kids in right away, you get this giant clump before you get your food.” “I would like them to microwave a few things sometimes, to get some products hotter instead of cold.”

The workshops day at FoodShare On March 3 there was a special workshop day at FoodShare: Soil Power! From Field to Table and back again. At this day there were about 60 children, from different schools in Toronto, coming over to FoodShare. The children were split up in three groups and each group followed three different kinds of workshops and several activities and games. All the workshops, activities and games were held inside or outside the FoodShare building. Three students in my research came to this day as well. During the interviews, I briefly spoke to these children about how they evaluated this workshop day at FoodShare. All the children were very positive about this day and had good memories of learning and fun together. “That day was lots of fun!” “We learnt some things what we also have learnt during the Footprint, but it was good to know again, because it made my memory refresh again.”

One workshop was in the kitchen, where they made potato slices. “We tried the potatoes from the last group and everyone said ‘O my gosh it is so hot!’ So, I had some crackers in my bag pack and we ate them, because it was so spicy.” “Everyone got to join in and do one little thing and you got to know more people.” They also went to the ‘Rotten Apple Party’. “That was interesting” “We talked about how we can help the earth with doing one little step at a time. Also, we got to know other people.” “We learnt about what worms don’t like, because they go into our bin, they don’t like onions, they don’t like oranges. And if you put meat in it, racoons will come in.”

In another workshop they made fresh juices and had to name their freshly made juice. “We made the drinks, that was interesting. I liked the machine, that would be handy to have at home. I was like: I want this, I want this. And wow, I thought: this must be expensive. Once I thought: all those juices must be probably more expensive, if you keep buying juices. Instead of buying all the ingredients and putting it in the juicer. And than, you have the pulp, but I didn’t ask him, because I had no time, what can you do with the pulp? Can you put it in like pie or cupcakes? Because it smelled really good.” Another workshop was outside about composting. During a game, they got to know what to put in the compost bins. “When we went outside, the compost bins. I think it was good for everyone, because it showed different stages of the compost. It is not just like, a couple of days later and it is compost. They told us like: this, took about this many days. And than, when they showed the full compost, that is, I think it takes about a month. Everyone was like: that is a lot. I think people were like: wow, that takes a lot of time.”

4.4.1. Elaboration 3. Discussion by using the drawings about the projects and their opinions on healthy and unhealthy food and whether this is affecting their behaviour.

The students were asked to draw as many healthy products as they knew on a green paper and as many unhealthy products on a red paper.

Products on the green paper (healthy products) were: Apple (12x), orange (10x), broccoli (6x), strawberry (5x), pineapple (5x), banana (5x), bread (5x), milk (5x), tomatoes (4x), carrots (4x), water (4x), pear (3x), lettuce/salad (3x), grapes (3x), yoghurt (2x), cheese (2x), peas (2x), red pepper (2x), mango (2x), cucumber (2x), peaches (2x), potato (2x), meat (2x), fish (2x), nectarine (1x), lemon (1x), noodles (1x), juice box (1x), corn (1x), granola fruit bar (1x), blueberry (1x), raspberry (1x), rice (1x), tuna (1x), steak (1x), chicken (1x), pumpkin (1x), celery (1x) and nuts (1x).

- Page 37 -

Products on the red paper (unhealthy products) were: French fries (8x), candy (8x), ice cream (7x), pizza (5x), (Lays) chips (5x), cake (5x), pop (5x), burger (5x), cookies (4x), chocolate (3x), chocolate bars (2x), hot dog (2x), soda (2x), brownie (1x), Smarties (1x), Skittles (1x), donut (1x), Wendy’s (1x), Doritos chips (1x), popcorn (1x), butter (1x), fruit punch juice (1x), cereal (Fruitloops) (1x), sugar crisp (1x), granola bars (1x), gum (1x), beer (1x), sugar (1x) and fast food (1x).

These drawings reflected a good knowledge of what healthy products are and what unhealthy products are, by all students from different grades. By using these drawings for elicitation, some students came up with some new details. “Milk, is protein and it’s good for you bones. Rice, because it has grains in it, and I found out that it is actually the best grain you can have. Steak and chicken are meat, and meat helps your muscles.” “French fries has lots of oil, homemade is much better.”

Students made the distinction between fresh products and factory products. Fresh means: “It’s good for your body, it’s not all machines.” Some products made by machines could also be healthy. The students knew that unhealthy products are made in factories or in fast food restaurants. Most older students (girls in grade 4 and girls and boys in grade 5) knew that factories often add many chemicals and other artificial flavours to products, which are unnatural. It was clear to many students of all grades that unhealthy food often has a lot of chemicals, sometimes they are deep-fried, it is greasy, oily and sweet. “Frying things takes away nutrition and it’s fattening, it’s oily.” “They put chemicals in, to make it taste good, for example sodium.” It is clear to many students from all ages why the factories are producing unhealthy products. “They just do it to make it tastier, so that they can get more people to buy it. To make money.”

Most students mentioned again that they learnt their knowledge from home, from Health Education, from books and from the health channel on television. Two students in grade 5, also got their knowledge from Science: they did a project on nutrition. It was remarkable that one student, who said he watched the health channel, often mentioned many wrong facts. “If it’s just at home then you don’t learn as much, I think Health class, when you get nutrition and the Food Guide, it showed me a lot of those stuff, what’s in everything.”

4.5. Aim 4. Succession of words: to tell what the first association is in their heads speaking of healthy, unhealthy, tasty food and other aspects around food.

By playing the special word-game (as mentioned in chapter 2 on methodology), I tried to collect the first thoughts in the students’ minds. For some students this game was a little confusing; it took a while to give an answer. Many students came up with examples. In the table below, the children’s answers and words are given, separated by every grade.

Words First thoughts grade 3 First thoughts grade 4 First thoughts grade 5

carrots nutrient; good for your eyes; orange; healthy

yummy; crunch; healthy Healthy

unhealthy chips; sugar; too fat; no energy; chocolate

not really good; not good; pop

Sweets

vegetables apples; orange; good yummy; colourful Celery

fruit raspberries; vitamins; crunchy; apple; yummy

Healthy healthy; good for your body; all natural; gives you energy, usually no chemicals

candy fat; sugar; flavour, lollypop; ok

ok not healthy; chemicals; sugar rush;

cookies sugar; tasty chocolate chip; sort of healthy

chocolate; not healthy; lot of fat

fast food Taste good; good; horrible chips; not healthy; ok; Burger King; not that

- Page 38 -

Words First thoughts grade 3 First thoughts grade 4 First thoughts grade 5

really unhealthy good for you; French fries; burgers, little snacks; lot of cholesterol; unhealthy

chips taste good; crunchy; different tastes; sweet; salty

different kinds of chips not that good for you; clogs up the walls of your veins; bad for you

garden fruits and vegetables; plants; green apples; lettuce; vegetables

flowers; squirrels; good for you; growing fruits and vegetables

planting; dirt; grow plants

fish meat; yummy good; slimy; could be healthy, depends on how it is cooked

yummy; healthy; meat

hamburgers meat; unhealthy; bad yummy; MacDonald’s yummy; has the meat what is good for you; depends what you put on it

Salad bar nutrients; don’t like; yummy

good; vegetables; different salads; salad

compost worms; apples; garden little worms; good for the environment

dumps; flies; leftover fruits; garbage

coke sugar, sweet; disgusting Bad for your teeth sodium

meat good for you; juicy; sometimes not healthy; yummy

hamburgers; fish; animals animals; burgers; hotdogs; you need it in your body

potato taste bad; healthy; ok French fries; healthy fries Fries

muffins chocolate chip; healthy; chocolate

ok; chocolate chip and blueberry

chocolate

French fries sugar; salt; deep frying; don’t go in your body so well if you eat too much; salty

homemade sweet potato; Burger Kings’ fries is not good for you (greasy)

yummy; potatoes

Hot Lunch food; good stuff to eat; vegetables; meatballs; hot dogs; pizza; yummy

yeah!; sometimes good for you; many people and a lot of food

like it!; delicious; healthy; free lunch

school garden plants; grow stuff; harvest working; fun, sometimes boring; our garden

our school garden; sunflowers; big foots and vegetables; grow plants

health class learning; human development; never been to it

don’t really like it; smart for you; nutrition and puberty stuff

learn about your body and about habits you should have and habits you shouldn’t have; learning

flowers seeds; beautiful; nice smells good smell good

food candy; good hungry; ok; favourite foods

I like to eat; healthy and unhealthy

pop taste good, bad for you; like coca cola?

junk food; carbonated, bubbles (fizzy)

my favourite; not that good for you; sodium; lots of calories; no vitamins; brain cancer

frozen products

good; sometimes; ice cream, yoghurt

my mom, she likes to freeze things; good for you

peas; dairy; sometimes can be good, it depends; ice

- Page 39 -

Words First thoughts grade 3 First thoughts grade 4 First thoughts grade 5

cream

worms slimy; dirty; cool fishing; rain moving around

health good stuff; good good for you; I think about what is healthy; body

Health class; learning

working in the garden

hard work; exciting; fun; good

fun, but rather do something else; playing with my sister; makes you tired; my grandma, she loved it

sweating; fun; tired; shuffle; fun

overweight what does that mean?; Fat; too much sugar; you overweight your body; very heavy ; bad

big; fat; slow; unhealthy foods

bad; chubby; scale; usually because you eat too much bad food; have to go to a dietician; obesity; fat

sprout what?; flower spring; what is that? flowers coming out of the soil

a meal hamburgers, hot dogs, tasty; good and bad

food depends on what kind of meal it is

frying barbecue; good; pan smoky; unhealthy, all the oils

fries; not so good for you

fresh products new stuff, fresh food; fresh from the garden; vegetables; fruits; yummy

yummy; really good for you; fruits and vegetables

really yummy

producing your own products in the garden (only asked to grade 5)

flowers; good way for the environment; saving money; better for you; it is all natural; no Kit Kat bars; no factory is involved; planting seeds

preparing your own products from the garden for cooking (only asked to grade 5)

healthy; fun; more healthy, you know what is in it; yummy

carbs I don’t know what is that?; what are those?

a label; I don’t know what that is; ok for you; what’s a carb?

hotdogs ketchup like them; yummy; meat greasy; different types of meat; not that healthy, depends what you put on it, mustard ketchup; lot of fat and cholesterol

vitamins good for your body; tasty and flavour; they put nutrients in our body; what is that?; yummy

healthy; no sickness; good for you; like vitamin C and different ones

sometimes in fruits, like vitamin A; in other products; helps you get stronger

sodium sugar; what does it mean? salt; good for you sometimes (it’s like grains);

labels; soda; close to fibres

- Page 40 -

Words First thoughts grade 3 First thoughts grade 4 First thoughts grade 5

salty stuff

Burger King deep frying; not healthy; hamburgers; dirty

fast food; too greasy; Whopper

burgers; nasty; not healthy, fries; factories

sugar (only asked to grade 4 and 5)

bad for your teeth; I see my mind is going crazy

sweet; hyper; sugar- rush, brings you up and straight down; not the best for you also not the worst for you; fat; junk food

Whopper burger; what is that?

protein meat it’s in meat; good for you; healthy

milk; have not learnt a lot about it so don’t really know

pans fire; cooking Cooking; what is in it pancakes;

cooking we can cook anything from food; pans; good; fun

yeah!; fun; everything I can make

fun; chef; enjoy it with my family; better to have homemade cooking than other food; watching my mom

Taco Bell taco’s; don’t like taco’s taco’s; ok taco’s;

broccoli good for you; vegetable; kids don’t like it; green; ok

looks like a brush; like a tree

like a tree; green trees; good for you; I like it; good taste

beans good farting; good for you; green beans

underground

kale what?; I haven’t heart from it

what?; what is that? really good; I don’t know what that is; I have not tasted it before

fat bad slow; overweight overweight

planting seeds exciting what is going to grow; when it grows you talk to it; whole wheat; fun

new flowers; flowers and vegetables

school garden; grow; usually for flowers and fruits; really fun; learn about environment; fun

factory big; not good bad for the air; hot; whole bunch of products being made

smoke; usually make not the good food, like chips, juices with the chemicals; chemicals; makes food

MacDonald’s bad; dirty bad; too greasy; Happy Meal

I don’t like it; salty; not good for you; French fries; a lot of fast food

FoodShare what?; fun Food diary

Wendy’s milkshakes Burger King and MacDonald’s; ok, sometimes greasy

salad; fries; a lot of fast food

- Page 41 -

4.5.1. Elaboration 4. Discussion by using first associations. To have a complete vision of their thoughts.

These associations showed a mixture of answers and not all answers were as clear as they seemed in the discussions and interviews. This ‘game’ gave the opportunity to check the answers of the children. A second point, this ‘game’ gave the opportunity to avoid ‘socially accepted’ answers or answers only based on what the children learnt. It provided insight in their minds. In general, these answers were in harmony with the answers collected by other methods.

4.6. Aim 5. The adults’ perspective, two teachers and two parents. I interviewed two teachers, teaching children at James S. Bell Junior Middle school for already over eight years, one male teacher and one female teacher, and two parents, both female and participating in school activities. Both teachers were involved in delivering food education. They expressed joy in teaching their students about food and nutrition.

All four adults agreed that this school provided a healthy school climate, by providing tree pillars: Health and Physical Education, the garden and a healthy lunch (the Hot Lunch Program). Besides these aspects, there were some children who were interested and had the opportunity to be involved in composting at the garden, for the purpose of the lunch program. All these programs brought a special atmosphere in the school and therefore the adults concluded that James S. Bell was really trying to have a positive attitude for healthy eating. “You don’t see as much pop anymore as you saw a few years ago.” All adults believed that learning about what is healthy can provide a positive effect on the children’s behaviour when they grow up. Health and Physical Education was a condition for food education in their minds. One part of the curriculum, was about nutrition (about 25%). The children learnt about aspects like keeping a food diary, about nutrients, they discussed the Canada’s Food Guide and learnt to understand different kinds of food. In particular, in every grade there was a curriculum expectation that the teacher should address healthy eating and food within this grade. In the adults view, especially the garden created more awareness about the food cycle. Their motivation was that children could actually see that products grow in the soil; it helps them to understand what is necessary for producing food. Moreover, sometimes it gave new opportunities. They knew of course that not every child is interested in working in the garden, some children did not have a garden at home and were not used to it. For those children, the school garden offered a good opportunity to get a first feeling with a garden. “The attitude from the children against the school garden is very positive. Some are just enjoying to be outside and others are really enjoying to do something in the garden.” The adults thought that for children the remarkable aspect of a garden was that almost every child would be fascinated to re dig in the ground and, for example, find a worm. Besides this, they thought it would make children proud to see the results of their work in the garden. “We grew that!”. “Kids love to get dirty, work with their hands and plant seeds”. “You need to touch it, live it, feel it to learn it.”

The adults’ opinion was that by using the school garden, the children would be provided with knowledge of where healthy food comes from and how you can complete the circle of the food system. The garden was accessible to every teacher, but it was up to every individual teacher to use the garden during class. So, there was some freedom in education for teachers. In some aspects of the curricula it fitted in really well to use the garden for teaching, this was especially true for the Science curriculum. In the view of the adults, using the garden was also an extra opportunity for teaching and it offered more resources in education compared to sitting in the classroom. But practical points were seen in relation to the garden as a means for education. One of the teachers suggested: “To have even more involvement in the garden you need a specific person who is in charge of the garden, this person could promote the garden to other teachers to use the garden as a teaching tool.”

The garden was so successful that this year funding was found for a new garden (The Butterfly Garden), which will also be built by the students of the school. This means that James S. Bell will have two gardens to use during school time and that the community will be able to help with the garden after school time. This will be a good investment to get more children involved in the school garden. “It is difficult for all classes to partake sufficiently in only one small garden.”

The third pillar of the food education programme, The Hot Lunch, in the eyes of the adults provided a way to get children familiar with different healthy products like salads, vegetables and other fresh meals.

- Page 42 -

“It gives the children the opportunity to taste things and to develop good eating habits”. It provided exposure to healthy food. The adults mentioned that especially for parents who work during the day, the important advantage was that they did not have to make lunch for their child(ren). Another important aspect of the Hot Lunch Program was that children became more aware of healthy eating by seeing other students eating the healthy Hot Lunch. Also, students who were not part of the Hot Lunch Program, could see how students who were part of the program, ate fresh, healthy food and from the Salad bar. This may have an impact, by broadening their view of what to eat during lunch. The adults gave credits to the ladies from the Hot Lunch Program, because they made sure that all children in the Hot Lunch Program ate enough different kinds of food.

But there was more. It was clear to both teachers and parents, that an active and healthy family that cares about healthy habits is important to accomplish health consciousness. In the end, the parents choose their children’s food. “It really upsets me when I see some of the food that the children bring to school. What they consider as snacks and the kind of things they put in their bodies.” In their view, since the parents decide about the food their children consume, some parents should have gotten some education about food as well. “All kids have the desire to be healthy, they all want to be the fastest runner, except they sometimes can’t because of bad health and bad diet.”

On the other hand, the adults emphasized that some parents in this neighbourhood found themselves in a problematic economic situation. They simply could not afford enough healthy products. Therefore, exposure to healthy choices was also a social economic issue.

The social situation mattered and influenced the effect that health education at school could reach in a child’s future behaviour/eating habits. All adults claimed that it can have a huge impact on their food consciousness if children talk about health at home.

At the same time, adults saw the relativity of education. What the children will really take along for the future depends on more factors than just the school classes around food. But providing nutrition programs and a constant learning about good, healthy food will have a great chance of motivating children to eat more healthy when they grow older, or so they mentioned. Every year, the children learnt more about health, food and nutrition. The higher the exposure to healthy eating habits, the more their general knowledge will grow. “The messages they get at school will have an impact for sure.”

4.6.1. Elaboration. Discussion with two teachers and two parents on what their opinion is on food education.

In summary, for these adults food education meant: teaching youth about healthy eating habits, knowing what children understand about food, teaching them about good nutrition and healthy living, the different types of food, the Canada’s Food Guide, serving sizes, how much you need from each food group, having good clean food habits, developing healthy habits, where food comes from, processed food, a balance in everything and understanding what your body needs at certain times. Food education seemed essential in the opinion of those adults, especially for the future, as it is a continuing process. “This age is the lifetime of learning.”

In the neighbourhood of the school, where most children lived, the possibilities to have fresh healthy food were limited. There were only few fresh fruit stands. The school gave the children the opportunity to learn about and to eat healthy lunches (The Hot Lunch Program). It is important for the children to learn to enjoy healthy eating, so that they will bring that experience with them when they are getting older. Thinking critically about food and nutrition is still difficult for children. They are not yet able to properly understand food labels. “For example, when they see at the packaging that a product is healthy for you, they do not know that actually it is a very processed food without healthy nutrients. This is what food education is about.” Moreover, children may know intellectually what is the right kind of food (healthy food), but still their own choices in food can be different. “The students have a positive intellectual attitude towards things but they do not always back it up with their choices.”

In addition, the adults’ point of view was that children enjoy learning about food and nutrition, but their circumstances may hinder them to choose on the basis of their knowledge. “Children want to just eat fast and go, because they want to hang with their friends. “Knowing is different from practicing.” Here they’re forced to sit and relax and eat healthy. So, they’re learning it and you hope it will carry on, because in high school that is going to be lost and they’re

- Page 43 -

just grabbing and running. You hope that they will grab the whole wheat sandwich or pita instead of the plate of frites, because they learnt it here.”

An important obstacle which the adults mentioned was: “When it comes to anything in the classroom, there is never enough time to really go in to any topic, so also for food education. The good thing about this school in particular is the fact that it has a school culture around food. Because of the garden and the lunch program food education is not only classroom based, it is all around the school.” “The school gives the message to eat more healthy; how to make better choices”

The teachers’ and parents’ starting point was the basic position of food and nutrition: “Food is a part of our live, it should be like an everyday experience, these young children need a constant dialog about what would be right for them.” To see results we need to reach more awareness about healthy food and a healthy lifestyle. They kept on going and saw a positive future. “Somewhere down the line these kids are going to be more health conscious, it can take a while , but it is now so in your face to be more health conscious, you’re so bombarded to be healthy. That is different than in the past.”

4.7. Conclusion In this chapter I have presented my research results. I used different methods and techniques to gather information. This brings the validity of the results on a higher level. The food diaries, which the children filled in, brought me to the conclusion these students are eating well during the school week. The numbers of snacks they consume are very limited. During the weekend they eat less healthy and more ‘easy food’. Another point is the kind of products they eat. Fresh food is clearly present but not dominant.

- Page 44 -

5. Analysis and Conclusion

5.1. Introduction In this chapter I will present an analysis and draw main conclusions. Therefore, I return to my research question and sub questions. I will answer these questions by using the research results.

In this research my main question was: What does being a member of the FoodShare’s Field to Table Schools, including participation in the school food garden, means to the students and how does this membership and participation affect their daily food intake behaviour and their overall understanding of good, healthy food?

Sub questions were the following.

1. What do the participant children remember about the nutrition programs, the school garden and classes about nutrition at James S. Bell.

2. What do these students eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks now?

3. How have these students appreciated their participation in these programs and the school garden project itself?

4. What are the students’ knowledge (understanding) and opinion of good, healthy food compared to unhealthy food?

5. Do the students think their food choices have changed as a result of participation in the nutrition programs, the school garden, and classes about nutrition?

6. Do the students feel their meaning of food, particularly good, healthy food has been changed as a result of participating in the Field to Table School programs?

5.2. Questions

Sub question 1 What do the participant children remember about the nutrition programs, the school garden and classes about nutrition at James S. Bell?

Repeating the literacy on nutrition during any program has the most effect on what children remember well. This counts for all students from different grades. Most children remember some parts of the Health Education and the school garden, but some children had to refresh their memories first before they could tell me about their experiences in these programs. It depends on the children’s interests how much they remember of Health Education and the school garden. About Health Education, they remembered mostly the literacy about which products are healthy and which are unhealthy to eat, food intake (portions), the food groups, food boxes and food labels. It is clear that the average grade 5 student remembers the most of these Health classes, and they have the most knowledge about the different subjects they learnt. Especially, for the children of grade 4, the literacy on calorie-intake made a big impact. They remember well how they compared the amounts of calories and the nutritional facts of fast food with the daily calorie intake amount. All students know about the Canada’s Food Guide and what it is about. By using this clear picture as an overview of what is healthy eat, makes is very clear to young children.

All children know the school garden. Of last year, the students remember the planted products of the garden: tomatoes, pumpkins, fruits, gigantic sunflowers and other flowers. Every student of the school had to help building and creating the school garden. It depended on the grade what they did. Different tasks they remember are: measuring and building the garden, turning the ground, growing seedlings in the classroom, planting the seedlings in the garden, the harvest fest and the composting (mostly students in the Hot Lunch Program).

Five out of the twelve students during my research are in the Hot Lunch Program. The children indicate they do not learn about good and healthy food during the Hot Lunch Program, but they eat only healthy products, and they know that.

- Page 45 -

Students, who talk about food and nutrition at home with their family, have most knowledge about healthy and unhealthy products. Moreover, as I discovered, especially those children also remember more about the different projects and programs about nutrition and food, compared to the students who do not discuss food and nutrition at home. Their interests in health and nutrition in general seem to be a little more. About half of the students in my research talks sometimes about healthy food and nutrition with their parents or their brothers and sisters.

Sub question 2 What do these students eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks now?

The food diaries, which the children filled in, give an overview about how they normally eat. The conclusion I can give of these food diaries is that these students are eating well during school week. All students eat breakfast, which is very important to start the day with. The number of snacks is very limited and not all children drink pop. When some students drink pop it is mostly during the weekend. It seems, most parents cook dinner during the week. Most times, this dinner includes potato, rice or pasta with meat and vegetables. During the weekend, they eat less healthy and more ‘easy food’. Another point is the kind of products they eat. Fresh food is clearly present but not dominant. Two children only wrote, they went one time to a fast food restaurant.

Sub question 3 How have these students appreciated their participation in these programs and the school garden project itself?

Most children enjoy to work in a garden. These students think very positive about the school garden and remember the most about what they did. The things the children enjoy of working in the garden are: to be outside, to be with friends, planting flowers, to be ‘proud’ of yourself of making a garden beautiful, harvesting and using the products from the garden, to see how beautiful it can be and how ‘alive’ a garden can be.

Every student is very positive about the quality of food and the fact they are part of the Hot Lunch Program. They enjoy the fresh healthy food, even if sometimes they do not like some products. By participation in the Hot Lunch, some children will get in touch with products they may not normally eat at home and by throwing the leftover food in the compost bins, they see the importance of composting and by composting they are shown the nature character and the cycle of food in nature.

The students indicate that they earn much of their knowledge about healthy food and nutrition because of Health Education and the school garden. They have a positive attitude against these kind of programs and most children like to learn more about nutrition and food. Especially, the students think it is important to know how to be healthy when they grow older. For some students it is clear they do not have many interests in working in a garden, but they do not mind being in a garden with their friends.

Sub question 4 What are the students’ knowledge (understanding) and opinion of good, healthy food compared to unhealthy food?

The students have a clear view on the difference between healthy food and unhealthy food. Moreover, their knowledge of the character of food, whether a product is healthy or unhealthy, is very well. Especially, for their young ages, they have a firm understanding on which products are good for your body. All students know fresh products like vegetables and fruits are always healthy. Products with too much sugar, too much fat, too much oil and too much salt are unhealthy for your body. These products are products made by factories and have artificial flavours and other unhealthy ingredients in it. Meat, fish, eggs, milk, cheese, brown bread are known as healthy. Products like pop, French fries, ice cream, candy, chocolate cookies, brownies, pie and chips are known as unhealthy. Pizza and hamburgers are divided in the unhealthy group or in the in between group. Mostly plain cereals and granola-bars are more difficult for some children, these products are put in the in between group or in the healthy group. Drinks like fruit juices are most of the time seen as healthy, but many students know these products contain lots of sugar, which makes it more unhealthy. Water is healthy for everyone.

It is clear to all children that healthy products give your body the right amount of energy. The students make a definite distinction between the energy you get from healthy products and the energy you get from unhealthy products. Ten out of the twelve children mentioned the ‘sugar-rush’. They explained the ‘sugar-

- Page 46 -

rush’ acts only in unhealthy products. It means that, for a short amount of time, your body gets a lot of energy but after this time, there is no real energy left. In contrary, healthy products give you slowly enough energy, which will stay for a longer time and you will not get tired. Another important aspect of healthy products is that it will not make you sick and it will not make you fat (overweight). Both words, ‘junk food’ and ‘fast food’, stand for unhealthy products. These products can be very high in salt, sugar, fat and cholesterol.

The Canada’s Food Guide is an easy way to help children understand what to eat and how to eat healthy. In addition, the different food groups in the picture with examples of what belongs in these food groups makes it very understandable. Another tool to know whether a product is healthy or not is inspecting the food label. Eight children from different grades looked sometimes on the back of products to have a view at the food label. During Health Education, they were taught about food labels. They do not totally understand what the words like ‘carbs’ mean, but they know what the calorie amount says and that high amount of sugar is unhealthy

All students know they have to eat healthy products on a daily base and unhealthy products only ones in a while. Healthy food is normal food and is seen as the standard for daily food intake.

Sub question 5 Do the students think their food choices have changed as a result of participation in the nutrition programs, the school garden, and classes about nutrition?

The students of grade 4 and grade 5 have more experience with food education at school compared to the students of grade 3. Five students in grade 4 and 5 from 8, indicate that they eat differently compared to a few years ago and they want to eat differently. These five students are mostly girls, most boys are a little ‘backward’, compared with girls, in how they behave and come across. For all students, there is definitely more attention to healthy eating. Literacy and knowledge they get by learning in Health class. The school garden provides practice in food production by applying learning and knowledge from Health classes. The Hot Lunch provides new aspects in food behaviour. When they were younger they had less knowledge of what is healthy food and what is not. By getting older, they start to realize what is good for your body and what is not. Therefore, most students try to think more about their food intake behaviour as they say. Parents are a major factor in their children’s eating behaviour. Specifically, parents decide what kind of food is eaten at home. They can have a positive influence on improvement in food behaviour. However, when parents are not involved in a healthy lifestyle, with food education on its own, it is more difficult to attain positive changes in food choices.

Sub question 6 Do the students feel their meaning of food, particularly good healthy food, has been changed as a result of participating in the Field to Table School programs?

For this research it is important to know: the Field to Table School programs in the school James S. Bell offer three different programs on food and nutrition, Health Education or as the children say, health classes, the school garden and the nutritional programs (Hot Lunch). The educational and teaching approach of these programs is different. In the first place, the general Health classes, or Health Education consist of classroom activities on food and nutrition, for every student an important way to learn about food, nutrition and a healthy lifestyle. This can be typified as the cognitive aspect in food education. In the second place, there is the practice approach of food education. By working in the school garden, the students can apply their cognitive knowledge in practice: how to produce fresh products and to experience where food is coming from. Finally, in the third place, the Hot Lunch program provides guidance in how to make a healthy choice in eating; the school decides what kind of food is available for lunch. Therefore, the school can be in control of the students’ food intake. This can be seen as the third aspect of food education. At the same time, the Hot Lunch program use the products of the school garden and children experience the finishing of their work, the end of the food cycle by eating and next by composting.

By providing these different programs of learning, practicing, applying and providing healthy food to the children, James S. Bell creates a total or complete environment around healthy behaviour and around food. Therefore, awareness of what right choices are, is present at school and stimulated. Especially, the older students notice this. The teachers and the parents involved think these programs will have an impact for their further development. For the younger students there is a different impact.

- Page 47 -

5.3. Conclusion The main conclusion which can be reached is the importance of integration of different levels of food education. Most students show a high level of knowledge, especially, when we take their age into account. It is clear, students in grade 3 know less than students in grade 4 and 5. The difference between grade 3 on the one side and grade 4 and 5 at the other side is remarkable. For the elder students knowledge about food and nutrition is not only more than for the younger ones, but it seems even self evident. Participation in the school garden is possible for all students, but not in large numbers and not for everybody at the same time. Most of the participating ones like it very much. They love working in the garden and keeping in touch with plants and having lessons in fresh air. Learning about composting is offered by a workshop. Children learn by composting the food cycle in nature. The last way of food education is participating in the Hot Lunch program. As is participating in the school garden, this is not possible for all students at the same time. The students who follow the Hot Lunch program are very enthusiastic about the food they get during the lunches, four days a week. The students who do not participate in the Hot Lunch program know about this program and have friends who are in it. The students do not differentiate in the three points of the food education program, health classes, the school garden en the Hot Lunch program, but it is clear that the integration of it raises their awareness, their knowledge and their discussion about making healthy food choices.

- Page 48 -

6. Discussion and Recommendations The discussion and recommendations will be focused on the situation in The Netherlands. FoodShare and the participation in the Field to Table Projects of James S. Bell students will be treated here as good practices. The discussion en recommendations will be related to a few points of attention:

- Different ways of education for achieving understanding and opinion of good and healthy food

- The role of school gardens in this education program

- Separated workshops and specific actions

- Developing education materials

- The role of parents and the family

Above points of attention are described in more detail below.

6.1. Different ways of education for achieving understanding and opinion of good and healthy food

It is clear, from the research results, students at James S. Bell obtain a clear understanding and opinion of good and healthy food by participating in school food education and school food gardens. The meaning they attribute to good and healthy is focussed on food as products of nature. They understand that food products can have a direct influence on human body. Their knowledge of nutrition is relatively high. They know about the sugar rush, calories, fat, salt, the Canada’s Food Guide. A few students even indicated a change in their food intake behaviour compared. Important is the way how these children are educated by multiple educational approaches of food education. It is an ‘integrated approach’, which reaches the students at different levels. The first way of education is by learning in class (Health Education), the cognitive way. Second, is the participation way in food production (the school garden). And last, consumption of their produced food (the Hot Lunch). The influence of these three ways of food education seems to work very well to decrease the supposed alienation from food as a natural product and from food production as a factory process.

What can we learn from the Canadians for the Dutch situation? As written in the introduction, in the Netherlands food and nutrition lessons are given as intermittent projects, not as permanent part of the school curriculum. Integration of food and nutrition education can be recommended as we realize that we have to bring back food as an integrated part of daily live, also for children. An integrated approach means different education methods, cognitive, participation and consumption (tasting and eating).

6.2. The role of school gardens in this education program In the Netherlands school gardens know an old tradition.40 Although founded to supplement daily diet, school gardens in the Netherlands are more part of physical education now. The relation with food and nutrition is limited in these times, in contrast to the Toronto school gardens where the focus is on food and nutrition. The connection with city agriculture is evident in Toronto. Focus on school gardens as teaching instruments, for physic ánd for food education, demands another approach and another planning than we are used to in the Netherlands. School gardens in the Netherlands can easily be transformed to support physic education ánd food education. Moreover, there is another point to focus on, namely the situation and planning of school gardens. In the Netherlands, mostly, school gardens are situated at the border of the city, not in close proximity of schools. As the school garden of James S. Bell shows, school gardens situated close at school offer more educational practice, for food education too; it seems a necessary part of school life for children in elementary ages to bring them back to nature. In the Netherlands, it is not self evident to situate a school garden in proximity of the school as it is with play area. As part of city agriculture, school gardens, in different seizes, from small to big, should be part of the social planning and architectural planning of a school.

- Page 49 -

6.3. Separated workshops and specific actions Separated workshops or action always have an ‘emission flow’. Even small actions can have influence. The Great Big Crunch day, all over Canada, even international, in Amsterdam and in Morocco, seems to touch children’s attention. Special actions like these are relatively simple to organize and they can connect schools of different countries. The message is equal to all: learning about good and healthy food is something for all.

6.4. Developing education materials Education materials for food education are not so elaborated in the Netherlands as it is in Canada. So, development especially for food education is desirable for different grades (ages) and for different teaching packages.

6.5. The role of parents and the family Parents play an essential role in education in general, as well as in food and nutrition education. Involvement of parents in organising food education seems a prerequisite. This education is not necessarily cognitive. Participation and consumption is worthwhile, also for parents. Food and healthy food knows no language barriers. Even parents who don’t speak Dutch can participate in education on food and nutrition. For instance, organising healthy lunches for children can bring the other way in food education at school without many costs and a lot of fun. At the same time, parents get their education in food and nutrition too.

- Page 50 -

7. Appendixes

Appendix A: Permission by the Toronto District School Board

- Page 51 -

Appendix B: Time schedule

Sessions Time Amount Total time

Session with teacher

± 30 minutes 2 ± 1 hours

Session with parent

± 30 minutes 2 ± 1 hours

Sessions with children

First session - Introduction

± 30 minutes 4 ± 2 hours

Second session

(30 minutes per child)

± 30 minutes 12 ± 6 hours

Third session

(30 minutes per child)

± 30 minutes 12 ± 6 hours

Fourth session (if needed)

(30 minutes per child)

± 30 minutes 4 ± 2 hours

Total time interviews ± 18 hours

- Page 52 -

Appendix C: Agenda Overview Interviews James S. Bell

Week 13

Thursday, April 1, 2010

First session with grade 3 (4 children) (Library)

Week 14

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

First session with grade 4 (3 children)

First session with grade 5 (3 children

Interview parent

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Second session with grade 3 (4 children)

First session with one child from grade 4 and one child from grade 5

Friday, April 9, 2010

Second session with grade 4 (3 children)

Week 15

Monday, April 12, 2010

Second session with grade 5 (3 children)

Second session with one child from grade 4

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Third session with grade 3 (4 children)

Interview parent

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Third session with grade 4 (3 children)

Second session with one child from grade 5

Week 16

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Third session with grade 5 (4 children)

Third session with one child from grade 4

Interview teacher

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Fourth session with some children (max. 4)

Interview teacher

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Interview Wai Win Mok (Vice Principal)

Closing session with all the study participants

- Page 53 -

Appendix D: Methods, Aims and Actions

Students (children)

First session -Introduction (about 15 minutes per 4 children)

Methods Aim Actions and Elaboration

Semi-structured interviews + eating forms

- Knowing each child, name, age, sex, neighbourhood

- Explaining the aim of the research to the children.

- The eating forms will provide an overview of their eating habits and patterns. I will try to make an inventory of the type of food in terms of amount and quality in a one-week period.

- The first session is used as an introduction to get to know each other.

- I will collect some personal information as names, age, grades, where they live, and their opinion on participating in my research.

- I will explain to the children what the aim of this research is, what I like to do with the data which I will collect and what we are going to do in the next couple of weeks.

- After the introduction I will explain the eating forms. I like to collect empirical data like: what do these children take for breakfast, for lunch, dinner and snacks during one week. I have multiple forms that they can fill in for every day of the week.

- I will tell them that they should fill the forms together with their parents.

- I ask them to write down precisely for one week what they eat and drink every day and how much. I would like to ask the parents to help to fill in these forms, so they can check what the children write and probably the parents can complete the forms. That’s why I will give them these forms in the first session and I ask the children to bring the forms back at the next session. If there are children who forget to bring the forms back, they can give it back to their teacher another day.

- Page 54 -

Second session (30 minutes per child)

Methods Aim Actions and Elaboration

Part 1: Shortly reflecting on the eating forms

- To understand completely the filled-in eating forms

- I like to start this session with a short talk about the information I like to collect the forms which the children have filled in (with their parents).

Part 2: Drawing Elicitation Method and Showing Photographs

- I like to know what the children remember of the different programs about the food & nutrition (health education) which they participated in and what they remember of the participation in the school garden.

- What do the children think of these workshops/ lessons/ activities about food & nutrition and what is their opinion on ‘working’ in the school garden? What kind of feelings it gives them.

- After these eating forms I like to ask the children to make a drawing of a session of one of the food & nutrition programs (health education) or of an activity during the school garden lessons.

- They may choose either one; they will have a few minutes to make the drawing.

- After the drawing, we look together at some photographs of the school garden.

- By drawing a picture and showing photographs, I like to start with some questions about what they have done at school (what they remember) during the programs on food & nutrition (health education) and on their participation in the school garden activities.

See the questions which will be asked (Questions interviews).

Part 3: Showing Real Products and Images of Food

- By using the research methods ‘showing real products or pictures of products’ I hope to trigger them to think about a product and the qualification whether it is healthy or unhealthy to eat it. I hope to get insight in their motivations and why they think a product can be good or bad for someone’s health.

- I want to know how the children order the shown products.

- I like to see what they know about good and healthy food. I like to find out their perspective on good and healthy food.

- After these questions I will show every child some real products or pictures of different products. There will be many products which can be typified as good and healthy food.

- Examples of products I will use: bread, milk, cheese, lettuce, carrot, tomato, potato, pasta, different kind of fruits, some snacks like cookies and chips, candy etc.

- I will ask them what they like to eat and why.

- My second question is to make combinations of products. Which products belong together and which do not belong together in the children’s opinion?

- Next I will ask them to categorize these products in healthy and non-healthy products.

See the questions which will be asked (Questions interviews).

- Page 55 -

Third session (30 minutes per child)

Methods Aim Actions and Elaboration

Part 1: Drawing Elicitation Method: drawing good and healthy

- Determine what these children see as good and healthy food by drawings.

- In this session I will give the assignment to make a drawing of what they see as good and healthy food. The children will be asked to draw multiple products in about five minutes. Children tend to draw what they know and not what they see, as adults do. After finishing, I will discuss the drawings(s) together with each child. For discussion, drawings are a medium for elicitation of thoughts and a mean to discuss in children’s terms what they think and imagine.

See the questions which will be asked (Questions interviews).

Part 2: Drawing Elicitation Method: drawing bad and unhealthy

- Determine what these children see as bad and unhealthy food by drawings.

- The second assignment is to make a drawing of what they see as bad and unhealthy food.

See the questions which will be asked (Questions interviews).

Part 3: Word Association Method

- To know what is the first association in their heads speaking on healthy, good, tasty and delightful food.

- Insight into their perspectives of good and healthy food.

- After this part I will use the word association elicitation method, I will ask the child to tell what their first thought is that comes in their mind and what their first reaction is when I say a certain word. To become accustomed to the ‘game’, I will try words such as school, friends, TV etc. Later on I will present words as vegetables, fruit, carrots, candy, cookies, chips, hamburgers. I hope these answers elicit more information and give insight into their perspectives of good and healthy food.

- Page 56 -

Fourth session (if needed) (30 minutes per child)

Methods Aim Actions and Elaboration

- Semi-structured interviews/ reflecting

- Showing real products and images of food

- Drawing Elicitation Method

- Word Association Method

- To get final clearness about children’s answers

- To specify obscurities

- If needed, I could do a fourth session with some children. After the third session I will decide whether or not to have a fourth session with some children. This fourth session can be helpful to clarify the data that I collected so far. The methods and the questions I like to use are the same as I have already used in the first three sessions.

- Page 57 -

Teachers

Session with teachers (30-40 minutes per teacher)

Methods Aim Actions and Elaboration

Semi-structured interviews

- To get an overall view: what is the content of the programs about food & nutrition (health education) and the content of the school garden project?

- To get information about what projects the children are participating in or have followed and what is the specific content of these projects.

- What is the teachers’ opinion on food education in general and on food education at their school?

- I like to know: do the teachers see their students’ eating behaviour is changing?.

- What is the teachers’ opinion about the influence on the food intake behaviour?

- I will start to introduce myself and my research project.

- The teachers know the children very well by working every day with them. They know exactly which programs on food & nutrition the children followed, what the content was of the school garden project and in which way their students have participated in this school garden project.

- During this session I will interview two teachers separately. I will ask several questions and I like to know their opinion on the various programs on health education (food & nutrition) and on the school garden project.

- Also, I like to hear their opinion on food education in general.

See the questions for this session (Questions interviews).

- Page 58 -

Parents

Session with parents (30-40 minutes per parent)

Methods Aim Actions and Elaboration

Semi-structured interviews

- To have an impression on the parents’ opinion about the programs on food & nutrition.

- To have an impression on the parents’ opinion about the school garden project.

- I like to know if parents see some behaviour changes at their children and in the children’s’ knowledge about food, their interests in food production or their eating behaviour.

- I will start to introduce myself and my research project.

- Parents decide mainly what their children eat. It is important that parents pay attention to their children’ eating behaviour to stimulate children to eat in a healthy way. To get a complete picture I want to finalize this research with two interview sessions with two parents. These parents should preferably be involved with the school or school activities or they have knowledge about the programs their child has been participating in.

- I would like to have their opinion on the programs about food & nutrition (health education) and what they think about the participating in the school garden of their children.

See the questions for this session (Questions interviews).

- Page 59 -

Appendix E: First session students - introduction and explanation Food Diary.

Discussion Guide

Interviews James S Bell Junior Middle School (Gr JK - 8) First session: Introduction session + Explanation Food Diary.

Introduction

Welcome everyone!

I am really excited to have you here and today we have a short session with each other.

My name is Caroline and I am from the Netherlands in Europe.

I study Nutrition and I am doing a research here in Toronto. The important thing I want to get to know is what you think of good and healthy food. Is it correct that you all have health education class? Do you all know your school garden? Did you do anything at the school garden? What things?

In total, I will have three or four interviews with each of you and today is the first one. The first session is together as a group, as you can see. The other sessions will start next week. Does anyone have a question?

Today we will do two things. First we will get to know each other a little bit. You already know each other, but I don’t. So I want to write some information down about every one. Secondly, I will explain to you what you have to do with the food diary, which I will give to you.

Student information

So can I start with you…… Student information

Do you have any questions for my or about the research?

Food diary

Now I will give you the food diary. Does anyone know what a food diary is?

A food diary is where you write down precisely what you eat and drink for every day in one week. This means that you really have to remember every day what you ate and how much you ate. You can fill this in together with you parents, so you make sure you do not forget anything.

It is really important that you tell me everything, do not be shy, I am not here to criticise, but I am here to learn from you. There will not be any wrong or right. You have to write down everything: if it is healthy or unhealthy. It doesn’t matter.

When you look at the example sheets (at the back of the food diary) you see that everything is precisely written down, including the sizes, the amount of fat in milk and yoghurt and all the products. In the food diary you also find pictures of different serving sizes. I brought them with me, so we can half a look.

So, now, we will do an example together. What did you eat yesterday? In the morning? In the afternoon? For lunch? For dinner? In what amount?

Does anyone have a question about the food diary? Last I want to give you my number where in case you have any questions about the food diary, you can give my a call. But first talk about it with your parents.

- Page 60 -

Requested student information

Name:

Male/ Female:

Age:

Birth date:

Grade:

Allergies:

Hot lunch:

School garden:

- Page 61 -

Appendix F: Second session students - Reflecting Food Diary + Drawing & Photographs + Real Products & Images

Discussion Guide

Interviews James S Bell Junior Middle School (Gr JK - 8) Second session: Reflecting Food Diary + Drawing & Photographs + Real Products & Images

Introduction

Welcome again! Today we have the second session. We will do three different exercises together. During this exercises I will ask you to make a drawing, answer several questions and we will talk about different kind of products.

The first thing what we will do is discuss the food diary.

Part 1: Reflecting Food Diary - 5 minutes

We will have a look at your food diary.

Did you like to do this?

Did you have any troubles?

Can you make a quick drawing about an activity of the Nutrition Programs….Health education class….. or the school garden……

Part 2: Drawing & Photographs - 15 minutes

Questions programs about food & nutrition (health education)

Tell me about your drawing.

What do you do in health education class? What is it about?

Do you like these lessons (health education class)? Why?

Can you give me an example of what you have learnt?

Do you think you know more about (good/healthy) food because of these lessons?

What would you like to learn more about food and nutrition (in health education class)?

Do you like to participate in health education class (a workshop/ lesson/ activity about food & nutrition) another time?

The following questions in this section are for students who attended the workshop:

Did you attend the Workshop at FoodShare Toronto before the March Break?

What did you do in the workshop/ lesson/ activity?

Did you learn a lot? Tell me something interesting that you learnt.

Do you think you know more about this subject after having participated in the workshop/ lesson/ activity? In what way?

Questions on school garden

Tell me about your drawing.

What do you see at the photograph?

Did you help in building and growing the school garden?

What did you do?

Was it by yourself and together with your class?

What did you learn from working in the garden?

- Page 62 -

What kind of products were growing in the garden?

Do you enjoy being in/working in the garden?

What things do you like and what things you don't like about the garden?

What do you like most in the garden?

Why? How did you feel?

For all children (also the ones who did not work in the garden last year)…….

What else do you like to do this year in the garden which you have not done last year?

Does your family have a garden?

Do your help your parents in the garden?

Do you have your own space in that garden?

If yes, what do you grow there?

If no, do you wish you could have your own garden at home?

Imagine you have your very own beautiful garden outside your house…….

What do you see? How does this garden look?

Which products would you like to grow in this beautiful garden?

What would you tell your family about your own garden? (To get an impressions about how they speak about their vision of their own garden.)

Part 3: Real Products & Images - 10 minutes

Now, I would like you to ask to look at all these examples of products. Divide these products in a healthy group, a not healthy group and a in between group. The products you don’t know you put in front of you.

After making 2 groups……..

Why do you think these products are healthy and why are these products unhealthy?

How do you know they are good for you? What do these products do for you/your body?

Can you tell by the look if a product is healthy or unhealthy?

Can you taste if a product is healthy or unhealthy?

Do you want to know if a product is healthy or unhealthy?

Do you talk about healthy and unhealthy food with your parents?

Do you talk about healthy and unhealthy food with your friends?

Do you like to eat healthy food? Why?

Do you like to eat unhealthy food? Why?

Do you know where these products are coming from? Where they have been made?

- Page 63 -

Appendix G: Third session students - Drawing Elicitation Method + ‘Word-Game’

Discussion Guide

Interviews James S Bell Junior Middle School (Gr JK - 8) Third session: Drawing Elicitation Method + ‘Word-Game’

Introduction

Welcome again! Today we have the third session. We will do three different exercises together.

During this exercises I will ask you to make drawings, answer several questions and we will do some kind of word-game.

For some children: the first thing what we will do is discuss your food diary.

Part 1: Reflecting Food Diary - 5 minutes

We will have a look at your food diary.

Did you like to do this?

Did you have any troubles?

Can you make a quick drawing about an activity of the Nutrition Programs….Health education class….. or the school garden……

Part 2a: Drawing Elicitation Method: drawing good and healthy - 10 minutes

Goal: Determine what these children see as good and healthy food by drawings.

In this session I will give the assignment to make a drawing of what they see as good and healthy food. The children will be asked to draw multiple products in about five minutes. Children tend to draw what they know and not what they see, as adults do. After finishing, I will discuss the drawings(s) together with each child. For discussion, drawings are a medium for elicitation of thoughts and a mean to discuss in children’s terms what they think and imagine.

Questions after drawing good and healthy

Tell me what you have drawn.

Why are these products healthy? What do they do to your body?

How do you know?

What did you learn about healthy food during health education?

The following question is for students who attend the Hot Lunch Program:

What did you learn about healthy food during the Hot Lunch Program?

School garden

What did you learn about healthy food during the school gardens?

What did you discuss in the class/in your group?

Do you think you learnt more about healthy products because of (the Hot Lunch Program and) the school garden?

Did you plant one of these products in the school garden?

What kinds of products can you plant in the school gardens?

Are these healthy? Why?

Do you like these products from the gardens?

- Page 64 -

Do you eat these products often? What kinds do you like?

Part 2b: Drawing Elicitation Method: drawing bad and unhealthy - 10 minutes

Goal: Determine what these children see as bad and unhealthy food by drawings.

The second assignment is to make a drawing of what they see as bad and unhealthy food.

Questions after drawing bad and unhealthy:

Tell me what you have drawn.

Why are these products bad and unhealthy for you? What do they do to your body?

How do you know?

What did you learn about unhealthy food during health education?

The following question is for students who attend the Hot Lunch Program:

What did you learn about unhealthy food during the Hot Lunch Program?

School garden

What did you learn about unhealthy food during the school gardens?

What did you discuss in the class/in your group?

Did you know before attending these programs (health education/ school garden/ Hot Lunch Program) what is unhealthy food?

These products, can you let them grow in the school garden?

Why not?

Do you know were these products come from?

Do you eat these kinds of products?

How often do you eat these products?

Do you like these products more than the healthy products you drew?

Part 3: Word Association Method - 10 minutes

Goal: To know what is the first association in their heads speaking on healthy, good, tasty and delightful food. To get more information and insight into their perspectives of good and healthy food.

Now, we will do a special ‘word-game’…….

I ask you to tell me what your first thought is that comes in your mind (head) and/or what your first reaction is when I say a certain word.

To become familiar with the ‘game’, we will first do some examples:

What is your first thought when I say……

School

Friends

TV

Car

Words - carrots - unhealthy - vegetables - fruit

- Page 65 -

- candy - cookies - fast food - chips - garden - fish - hamburgers - Salad bar - compost - coke - meat - potato - muffin - French fries - Hot Lunch - school garden - health class - flowers - food - pop - frozen products - worms - health - working in the garden - overweight - sprout - a meal - frying - fresh products - producing you own products from the garden - preparing your own products in the garden - carbs - hotdogs - vitamins - sodium - Burger King - sugar - Whopper - protein - pans - cooking - Taco Bell - broccoli - beans - kale - fat - planting seeds - factory - MacDonald’s - FoodShare - Wendy’s

- Page 66 -

Appendix H: Interview Teachers

Discussion Guide

Interviews James S Bell Junior Middle School (Gr JK - 8) Teacher session: General + Food Education + Food & Nutrition + School Garden + Opinion

Introduction

First of all, I want to thank you for being here. I record this conversation, so it makes it easier for me during the interview.

I am a student in Nutrition from the Faculty of Applied Sciences Amsterdam, the Netherlands. I am doing a thesis on how elementary students perceive healthy food, their origin and what healthy food means to them. More specifically, I'll be investigating the meaning that children attribute to good/healthy food and how their attitude towards food changes if their school offers Student Nutrition programs and/or school (food) gardens (and of course the school has Health Education).

I am here to learn from you, so it does not matter if you cannot answer a question; just tell me when you don’t and we will continue.

This interview will take about 30 minutes.

General - 5 minutes

Can you introduce yourself and your work at the James S. Bell Junior Middle School.

How many years have you worked at this school? How many years have you taught?

Food education - 5 minutes

What are your first thoughts when I say food education? Why? Important?

To what degree is food education part of the general school curriculum and to what degree is it part of special programs/projects?

Have you been involved in delivering food education to your students? For how many years? In which way?

Programs about food & nutrition - 5 minutes

Is there any food and nutrition program in this school? What kind?

Can you give me an overview of the program or specific examples of activities that your students are part of?

What have your students done this year in learning about food and nutrition?

School garden - 5 minutes

What can you tell me about the school garden in relationship to student learning? What kind of activities?

How have you utilized the school garden as learning opportunities for your students?

Opinion - 10 minutes

How do you evaluate the food & nutrition programs (Hot Lunch Program) at your school?

Do you see any influence at the children? In what way? Can you give examples?

What do you think about the school garden project?

Do you see any influence this project has on the children? In what way? Can you give examples?

What would you improve?

- Page 67 -

How would you describe the attitude of the children who participate in the school garden project and the food & nutrition program?

What do you think these children have learnt? Does the learning have any effect on their behaviour?

What do you think the children liked most in the food and nutrition program and in the school garden project?

Extra - 5 minutes

Do you see any changes in your students' food habit after participating in some of the workshops/ lessons/ activities?

Do you see any changes in your students' food habit (food intake behaviour) after participating in the school garden project?

Final - 5 minutes

Do you want to share anything else with me regarding students' food choice in relationship to the availability of Nutrition Programs and a school garden? Do you think I forget anything that could help me with my research?

And again, I like to thank you for the opportunity your school and you personally give me to let perform my research with you and your students.

- Page 68 -

Appendix I: Interview Parents

Discussion Guide

Interviews James S Bell Junior Middle School (Gr JK - 8) Parent session: General + Food Education + School Garden + Food & Nutrition + Opinion

Introduction

First of all, I will introduce myself and I like to thank the parent for helping me with my research and for spending their time with me.

First of all, I want to thank you for being here. I will be recording this conversation, so it makes it easier for me to listen back after the interview.

I am a student in Nutrition from the Faculty of Applied Sciences Amsterdam, the Netherlands. I am doing a thesis on how elementary students perceive healthy food, their origin and what healthy food means to them. More specifically, I'll be investigating the meaning that children attribute to good/healthy food and how their attitude towards food changes if their school offers Student Nutrition programs and/or school (food) gardens (and of course the school has Health Education).

I am here to learn from you, so it does not matter if you cannot answer a question; just tell me when you don’t and we will continue.

This session will take about 30 minutes.

General - 5 minutes

Can you tell me a little bit about yourself and about your child/children?

Do you pay attention to what your child eat daily? Are you interested in food?

In which way?

Food Education - 10 minutes

What are your first thoughts when I say food education? Why do you say that?

Are you familiar with food education when you were young?

What are the opportunities of learning about food and nutrition at your child’s school?

What do you know about this?

Do you talk about (this) food education with your child?

How do you feel about these opportunities? Do you like that? (Important?)

Is there enough education about food provided by schools (in general)?

Now I would like to talk about the school garden at James S. Bell……..

School garden - 5 minutes

How does the school garden project help in your child's learning about food and nutrition? In your opinion?

What do you think about having children do the gardening for the school garden?

Does your son/daughter talk about what he/she does for the garden or garden-related activities? (such as building the garden, growing seedlings in the classroom, planting the seedlings, the harvest fest, the spring bulb planting, the composting, etc., if the parents seem to be a loss of what gardening activities might be)

Can you give me some examples of stories he/she tells?

- Page 69 -

Food & Nutrition (Programs) - 5 minutes

Does your child attend the Nutrition Programs? For example: the Breakfast Club, Hot Lunch Program or Snack Program in the Afterschool Homework Club? Can you tell me anything about this? What do you know?

If not, is there a specific reason why?

What is your opinion about the fact that James S. Bell provides these programs

Before we talked about food education. As mentioned, James S. Bell has three Nutrition Programs. The other program about food and nutrition is Health and Physical Education, which is given at every school. I want to talk shortly about what you know about these nutrition lessons (Health Education).

Health Education (lessons) - 5 minutes

Does your child ever mention these lessons? In which way? Does he/she like it?

What do you know about these lessons?

Do you think it is important that schools have these lessons?

Because of these programs about food and nutrition at school (the Nutrition Programs, the school garden and the Health Education)……….

Have you noticed any changes in your child's attitude and knowledge about food and nutrition? For example more interested in food or more knowledge about food and asking for special food?

Did you maybe see a change in food intake behaviour?

Would you like to see more food education programs/projects for children? About which subjects?

In which way, do you think will it effect the children’s future eating habits?

FoodShare - 2 minutes

Does the name FoodShare say anything to you?

In what way?

Final - 5 minutes

Do you want to share anything else with me regarding children's food choice in relationship to the availability of Nutrition Programs and a school garden?

Do you think I forget anything that could help me with my research?

And again, I like to thank you very much for your time and your answers.

- Page 70 -

Appendix J: Food Diary

Food diary for one week (Monday till Sunday) By Karlijn Koudstaal

FoodShare Draw a picture of yourself with your favourite food!

Student information Name: Male/ Female: Age: Grade: Starting date: Ending date: Instructions: For each day for a week, fill in what you ate at each point during the day. You can look at the “example sheets” (at the back) to give you an idea of what yours might look like.

- Page 71 -

Different serving sizes By Karlijn Koudstaal

FoodShare

Bowls

From left to right:

large bowl, medium bowl, small bowl

Glasses/ Cups

From left to right:

large glass/ cup, medium glass/ cup, small glass/ cup

Spoons

From left to right: serving spoon, table spoon, tea spoon

- Page 72 -

- Page 73 -

Appendix K: Canada’s Food Guide

- Page 74 -

- Page 75 -

8. Literature and Notes

1 Convenant overgewicht. (Convenant overweight) http://www.convenantovergewicht.nl/, date: December 12, 2009

2 Jeugdmonitor, jaarrapport 2009 (Youth monitor, year report) http://jeugdmonitor.cbs.nl/nl-NL/menu/publicaties/2009-jaarrapport-pub.htm, date: December 7, 2009

3Nota Langer gezond leven: Ook een kwestie van gezond gedrag, oktober 2003. http://www.nicis.nl/kenniscentrum/binaries/kcgs/bulk/publicatie/2003/12/170195. pdf, date: May 31, 2010

4 http://www.proeftuin.amsterdam.nl/, date: December 6, 2009

5 http://www.proeftuin.amsterdam.nl/, date: December 6, 2009

6 Jager, L. C., Winter, M. A., Tacken, G.M.L., van der Kroon-Horpestad, S.M.A. (april 2008) Biefstuk komt niet van de kip. De rol van herkomst en gezondheid in de voedselkeuze van kinderen. (Steak doesn’t come from chicken. The role of origin and health in relation to foodchoice by children) Projectcode 31246, April 2008, Rapport 2008-016. Den Haag LEI, 101 p.

7 Steel, C. (2008) Hungry city. London: Chatto & Windus, 383 p.

8http://www.foodlog.nl/vandaag/bericht/jan_willem_van_der_schans_ruimtelijke_ordening_nederland_loopt_achter/, date: May 16, 2010

9Grantham, Andrea (1998) Making the Case for Physical Education in Canada: A Presentation Kit for Leaders. CAHPERD Canadian Association for Health, Physical Education, recreation and Dance.

http://www.cahperd.ca/eng/advocacy/tools/documents/MakingTheCase-A. pdf, date: May 16, 2010

10 http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/health.html, date: May 16, 2010

11 http://www.toronto.ca/health/tfpc_index.htm, date: December 13, 2009

12 http://www.toronto.ca/health/tfpc_index.htm, date: December 13, 2009

13 http://www.emigratieplein.nl/Canada/Canada-Onderwijs.html, date: May 26, 2010

14 Smith, E.E., Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Fredrickson,B.L., Loftus, G.R.F. (2003) Atkinsons & Hilgard’s Introduction to psychology, 14th Edition. Thomson Learning Academic Resource Center. Belmont USA. p.75

15 Smith, E.E., Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Fredrickson,B.L., Loftus, G.R.F. (2003) Atkinsons & Hilgard’s Introduction to psychology, 14th Edition. Thomson Learning Academic Resource Center. Belmont USA. p.82

16 Bluebond-Langner, M. & Korbin, J. E. (2007) In Focus: Children, Childhoods, and Childhood Studies. Challenges and Opportunities in the Anthropology of Childhoods: An Introduction to “Children, Childhoods, and Childhood Studies”, In: American Anthropologist, vol 19, issue 2, p. 241-246

17 Olivier de Schutter, lecture Food as Human Right. De Rode Hoed, Amsterdam.. November 10, 2009

Kent, George (2004) Food is a Human Right. http://www.allacademic.com//meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/0/7/0/2/8/pages70283/p70283-1.php, date: May 13, 2010

18 James, A. (2007) Giving Voice to Children’s Voices: Practices and Problems, Pitfalls and Potentials, In: American Anthropologist, vol 19, issue 2, p. 261-272.

19 http://www.tdsb.on.ca/SchoolWeb/_site/ViewItem.asp?siteid=10203&menuid=13049&pageid=11517, date: May 13, 2010

20 Interview Wai Yin Mokl, date: April 22, 2010

http://www.tdsb.on.ca/SchoolWeb/_site/ViewItem.asp?siteid=10203&menuid=13049&pageid=11517, date: May 13, 2010

- Page 76 -

21 James S. Bell Public School (elementary) Address: 90 Thirty First St, Etobicoke, ON, M8W3E9 Phone: (416) 394-7680

22 De Bree, J., Storms, O., Bartels, E. (2009) Waar voelen Marokkaans-Nederlandse remigranten- en achtergelaten kinderen in Marokko zich thuis? (Where do Moroccan-Dutch remigrant and abandont children feel at home?) In: Mens en Maatschappij, (People and Society), nr 4 p. 393-417.

23 Clark-Ibánez, M (2004) Framing the social world with Photo-Elicitation Interviews. In: De Bree, J., Storms, O., Bartels, E. (2009) Waar voelen Marokkaans-Nederlandse remigranten- en achtergelaten kinderen in Marokko zich thuis? (Where do Moroccan-Dutch remigrant and abandont children feel at home?) In: Mens en Maatschappij, (People and Society), nr 4 p. 393-417.

24 Willats, J. (2005) Making Sense Of Children's Drawings. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associate, p. 280

25 In the report about this research, the children will be described anonym.

26 See Cilel Smith (University of London, Institute of Education) lecture “The Global Classroom”, VU university: The Anthropology of Children Seminar.

27 http://www.foodshare.net/, date: May 27, 2010

28 FoodShare Strategic Plan 2009-2011

29 http://www.foodshare.net/donate02.htm, date: May 27, 2010

30 FoodShare Program Overview

31 Interview Meredith Hayes, date: February 12, 2010

32 Good Food Market flyer, FoodShare 2008

33 http://www.foodshare.net/school02.htm, date: May 27, 2010

34 http://www.foodshare.net/school-crunch.htm, date: June 9, 2010

35 http://www.thegrowingschoolsgarden.org.uk/explore-the-garden.htm, date: June 2, 2010

36 http://www.foodshare.net/schools-SoilPower.htm, date: May 27, 2010

37 http://www.tdsb.on.ca/aboutUs/, date: June 1, 2010

38 http://www.tdsb.on.ca/SchoolWeb/_site/ViewItem.asp?siteid=10203&menuid=13051&pageid=11518, date: June 1, 2010

39 Interview Wai Yin Mokl, date: April 22, 2010

40 Kranendonk, G (2004). De schooltuin, 100 jaar schooltuincultuur in Nederland. (The schoolgarden, 100 years school garden culture in The Netherlands) Amsterdam: Uitgeverij De Verbeelding