Students Open School Salad Bar With Help From U.S. Health Secretary

Photos by Daniel DeBoom

2:45pm | Students at Fremont Elementary on Tuesday morning wore huge smiles on their faces as their hands grasped weeds and their eyes examined blooming strawberries, as the garden they’ve built with the help of Chef Paul Buchanan became the focal point of a press conference on healthy food in schools that drew politicians from the local, state and federal level.

United States Secretary of Health & Human Services Kathleen Sebelius paid a visit to the students and their small but flourishing garden, greeting children and tasting the herbs they’d grown and harvested. Fremont officially unveiled a salad bar in its cafeteria this morning, and Buchanan hopes that soon it will be stocked with food grown right on school grounds.

“Our children’s health is a topic that transcends politics,” said Buchanan, who also runs Long Beach catering company Primal Alchemy and has used his Days of Taste organization to teach children here and in Orange County about healthy eating.

“What they learn at home and what they learn here sets the standard, and they’ll actually take stuff they learn here and bring it home. They’ll say, ‘Sorry, mom, we have to get rid of the Sunny Delight.'”

Sebelius praised the efforts being made at Fremont to not only provide, but also grow their own healthy foods to teach the students about the entire process. She was joined in celebrating the school by local politicians ranging from 7th District City Councilmember James Johnson and Mayor Bob Foster to Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe and Congressmember Laura Richardson. Foster said that he expects the Long Beach City Council to join First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move program to encourage healthy lifestyles, and even told students about his struggles to stay healthy.

“Despite appearances, I work out every day,” he joked. “When I was your age I didn’t eat the right things, and that made it much more difficult to stay healthy as I got older. I fight it every day. If you do this right, a sound mind and a healthy body really go together.”

Richardson presented Fremont principal Matthew Hammond with a certificate and handed an American flag that was flown over the Capitol on Memorial Day to a student. She also promised to participate in the school’s Jog-A-Thon fundraiser next week.

Sebelius noted that this week marks National School Lunch Week and that the Fremont salad bar and garden are a great example of what needs to be done across the nation to keep children active and healthy. She helped students cut the ribbon to the entrance of their new salad bar.

“I don’t know many schools in the country that have their own chef,” she said.

The Long Beach Unified School District is exploring ways to implement similar programs at other local schools. Buchanan says that it’s working in more ways than one, as children are learning how to heat foods that are both delicious and healthy, as well as gaining skills to produce their own food.

As the cameras packed up and motorcades rolled away, students were still in the garden, pulling weeds and plunging their hands into the soil, preparing their next batch of crops.

Students greeted Secretary Sebelius with hand-drawn signs and chants of “Salad! Salad! Salad!”

She recommends the basil.