Food Day 2011 launches healthy eating campaign called 'Eat Right At School'

BEREA, Ohio - How are you going to celebrate Food Day 2011? If you never heard of it, you're likely not alone -- but that may be changing.

Students at Grindstone Elememtary School in Berea began their Monday with a program called "Eat Right at School." This program is aimed at making children more aware of what they eat and what they should eat.

The Cleveland Clinic and the Berea City School District have teamed up to create healthier choices for school lunches. Proposed federal rules would increase the availability of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and fat-free and low-fat dairy in school meals. These changes are aimed at meeting the nutritional needs of school children within their calorie requirements.

The hope is that by making better choices in school meals, they will go home and make healthy eating a lifetime habit.

The kids got a jump on this when Justin Husher from Old Husher Farms in Cleveland had the students participate in a taste test of locally grown produce. Each received a plate filled with different veggies, many of them new to the kids.

Following the taste test, they got to vote on which vegetables to grow in next year's school garden.

Kids and veggies were an improbable mix that produced mostly positive reactions from the 40 "taste testers."