Statewide NC Crunch event aims to promote healthy eating habits in children

October is Farm to School and Early Care Education Month in North Carolina, and NC Crunch — a program promoting locally grown fruits and vegetables — is encouraging community members to participate in healthy eating habits.

NC Crunch's main event was held at noon on Oct. 18, when the program encouraged people to celebrate Farm to School and Early Care Education Month by "crunching into a locally grown fruit or vegetable."

Also on Oct. 18, NC Crunch hosted an outreach event at A Safe Place Child Enrichment Center, a preschool in Raleigh. Kim Shaw, the owner of A Safe Place, said the annual program helps to promote local farmers and vendors and their produce.

“It’s just a great way to celebrate our young children and our farmers in North Carolina in a unique way,” she said.

Shaw also said that informing children of healthy eating habits is important because it is a preventative measure against illnesses and diseases later in life. 

At A Safe Place, children as young as infants learn about fruits and vegetables through gardening to see where the food comes from, she said.

“We also believe that if a child grows, it, cooks it, or harvests it, they’ll eat it,” Shaw said. “It's their own production, they get to see it from the beginning to the end stages, they make the right connections about where food comes from."

Shaw and Diane Beth, a nutrition program consultant for the N.C. Division of Child and Family Well-Being, are on the leadership teams for the NC Farm to Preschool Network, a sponsor for the program alongside the Farm to School Coalition of North Carolina.

Beth said the event featured speakers from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, including Susan Osborne, the deputy secretary of opportunity and wellbeing. 

Beth said one goal of NC Crunch was to reach all 100 counties of North Carolina and to have 500,000 participants. As of Oct. 17, she said 58 counties have been reached and 170,000 people have participated.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 26.4 percent of children ages 1-5 in North Carolina do not consume fruit daily, and 49.1 percent do not consume vegetables daily.   

Around 90 percent of the U.S. population does not meet the Dietary Guidelines for Americans’ recommendation for vegetable consumption, and 80 percent does not meet the recommendation for fruits. 

“Luckily for us and our children, we do know data has shown that farm to early care and education is shown to increase children's consumption of vegetables and fruits by one daily serving,” Beth said.

Tracey Bates, school nutrition promotion specialist for the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, said children may be more familiar with canned, frozen, dried or juiced forms of fruits or vegetables. She also said some barriers between children and fresh produce could include lack of transportation or refrigeration availability, as well as cost.

Bates said fruits and vegetables can come in different forms to qualify for NC Crunch, and that NC Crunch can be implemented into schools in a variety of ways.

“Many of our school nutrition programs are serving North Carolina, growing fruits and vegetables as a part of school meals,” she said. “So students have the opportunity to learn about and taste North Carolina-grown fruits and vegetables through eating school breakfast or school lunch.”

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