Students discover joy of veggies

HARDYSTON — Children in Sussex County YMCA after-school programs taste-tested vegetables, painted vegetable prints and danced to farm-themed songs during Healthy U events during the week of Oct. 17.
Children sampled snow peas, green squash, sugar snap peas, green peppers, cucumbers, string beans and broccoli at the Farm-to-School celebrations.
“Parents were amazed their child even tried a new vegetable," said Samantha Walter, the Sussex County Y director of School Age Child Care and Sports & Enrichment. Cucumbers, she said, won the highest praise.
Events were held at Franklin Elementary School in Franklin, Hardyston Elementary School in Hardyston, and at the Sussex County YMCA, also in Hardyston.
The Healthy U program was created in 2008 by the New Jersey YMCA State Alliance and the Horizon Foundation for New Jersey to combat childhood obesity through nutrition education, physical education and family involvement. It’s estimated that one in three children is obese or overweight.
Healthy U touches the lives of more than 46,000 children statewide at more than 500 YMCAs and elementary schools. It is now the largest and most comprehensive childhood obesity prevention program in the country. The Horizon Foundation has invested nearly $5 million in Healthy U.