Open snack time: helping my students pick fresh fruit over the empty calorie snack

As a parent, I am often left frustrated when the snacks I send with my kids to school return home untouched. I usually send a fruit or vegetable as well as a processed  bagged snack. Sadly, the chips and pretzels get eaten while the apple or strawberries sit in the bag until they rot. As a teacher I found a way to insure that my students first eat their healthy snack by giving them more freedom and agency! A small change has improved the diet of so many students. 

The designated time for snack in school is 10:00am. Many of the students are not eating a proper breakfast and they are preoccupied with the question: "is it time for snack yet?" This question is usually asked in the same tone children who are stuck on a long car ride ask: "Are we there yet?".

 In my class, snack can be eaten at anytime if it is an unprocessed fruit or vegetable. Sugar loaded Yo Crunch or granola bars are not a fruit or vegetable! The students quickly embraced this change. Students are bringing in bags of carrots and cucumbers. They are eating all their fruit first thing in the morning and if they  still have room for the processed food they can enjoy the official snack time at 10:00am. 

Instead of trying to convince my students to "eat the frog" first. I give them the freedom to eat healthy during class and the students are more engaged in the learning: nurturing their souls while they are taking care of their bodies. 

I have not found the healthy eating a distraction. When one kid takes out an apple the worst thing that can happen is that another kid pulls out his apple. When a student pops open a bag of Doritos his father brought back from Israel the students around him may start salivating and start imagining when he can send his father to Israel to bring back a bag of Doritos. 

When we get to eating fruits and vegetables our bodies learn to seek out those tastes again. My hope is that the students get their morning fruit and later in the day when they feel hungry they will keep heading to the fruit basket. 

For most children the issue isn't a lack of food: it is the lack of nutrient rich food making its way into the children's stomach. we want our children to eat a nutritious breakfast but they often choose the item which will bring the quickest sugar rush and not the food with the highest nutritional density. Making it easier for the students to eat the fruit and vegetables helps give the healthy food a chance of being consumed!