It's lunch time at Wakefield Hills Elementary School in West Warwick.
It's pretty much a typical day, except the menu has a few sides you normally wouldn't see.
There's squash and pumpkin bread.
Jaiden, a kindergartner, says he especially liked the pumpkin bread.
Jaiden was part of a group of children who took a recent trip as part of the Rhode Island Kids First farm to school project.
"Some of these children don't have the opportunity to actually do that -- visit a farm and have hands-on experience," said Diane Tourangeau, teacher at the Wakefield Hills Elementary School.
The children picked a pumpkin and saw horses. The horses stayed on the farm, but the pumpkins were brought back to school.
Kids First, then, lends a chef to the school.
"(She) works with the lunch ladies and train them, help them learn how to peel a pumpkin, make pumpkin bread, peel butternut squash, steam it with apples and make it tasty," said Dorothy Brayley, executive director of Kids First.
Brook, like Jaiden, enjoyed the pumpkin bread but didn't care for squash.
But she tried it, and that's what Kids First educator and master gardener Kim Korb tries to get children to do.
"They'll look at their food with their eyes instead of tasting it," Korb said.
Korb makes trips to classrooms around the state.
"In the morning, they're hungry. We cut (food) up. Sometimes we talk about things we don't like, and maybe it's because we never tried them. And if they do try it, a majority of times, they like it," Korb said.
"We do education programs, working with the teachers to help them incorporate food education, real food, whole food, fresh fruits and vegetables into their classroom activities," Brayley said.
Kids First founded the Rhode Island Healthy Schools Coalition that not only helps improve nutrition, but physical activity in all 36 school districts.
A decade ago, Kids First may have graded the schools a D minus. Today, initially they say B minus.
"What they are doing today is so different from what we were doing 10 years ago. All the junk food is gone. More fresh fruits and vegetables are on the plate, whole grains are on the plate, so maybe I raise it to a B. What we're working on now is the center of the plate, hamburgers and chicken nuggets everyday, I don't think so," Brayley said.
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