On a hot summer day on a 27-acre farm in Sunnyvale, a group of elementary school students happily trotted into a cool area covered with vines and leaves and sat in a circle on wooden blocks.
Kathryn “Kat” Alexander, a 26-year-old Stanford student, read them a story and then asked them what they did with the kale and carrots they had received the day before.
“I ate the carrot before I left. I liked it,” said one boy as a red tractor chugged through a nearby field. “I put the kale on tacos,” he added.
“I put the kale in my father’s famous soup,” said one girl. Another girl said they added it to their ravioli.
“I haven’t done anything yet,” another child replied.
“‘Yet’ is a really good word,” Alexander told the group. “So what are your plans for how you’re going to use the kale?”
Alexander and Izzy Preble, 26, are Stanford Human Biology Research Exploration (HB-REX) interns who served as counselors and researchers at the Farm to Table Camp this summer, where they led intervention studies on how to get kids to eat more vegetables while also teaching them where their food comes from. For 14 years, Stanford’s Nutrition Studies Research Group has partnered with the Santa Clara Unified School District to host the camp on the school’s farm.
Stanford Human Biology Research Exploration interns Izzy Preble and Kathryn “Kat” Alexander with Linda Koh, a public health nurse and postdoctoral fellow at the Stanford Prevention Research Center, during their stay at the Farm to Table Camp. | Shelley Anderson/Cage and Aquarium
“Izzy and I were really excited about the growth mindset – the idea that you might not like something stilland letting the kids try new vegetables for the first time,” Alexander said. “On the first day, some parents said their kids wouldn’t try a single vegetable, and then when we told them what they tried here, they were close to tears, they were so excited. It was such a rewarding part of this process.”
To encourage children to connect with where their food comes from, Alexander and Preble developed storytelling interventions and narrative-building activities that bring the food system to life as “vegetable superheroes” with “spice buddies.”
They also refer to a lecture given by their mentor Christopher Gardner, director of the Nutrition Studies Research Group, Rehnborg Farquhar Professor and professor of medicine, who stressed that science is nothing without good communication. “We wanted to challenge ourselves to be good communicators, not only in the way we report and publish this research, but also to the kids, and give them the scientific knowledge to talk about why vegetables are important,” Alexander said.
Linda Koh, Christopher Gardner, Kathryn “Kat” Alexander and Izzy Preble of Stanford inspect pizzas waiting to go in the oven at Farm to Table Camp. | Shelley Anderson/Cage and Aquarium
“This is a unique opportunity to not only do hands-on work on a farm, but also to design our own research project and learn about the research process, methods and data,” Preble said. “It’s been really great.”
Beets and berries
Gardner first learned about the school district’s farm at the 2010 Stanford Food Summit, an event that brings together Stanford researchers to collaborate on creating a healthier, more sustainable world. Hoping the farm could provide research opportunities, Gardner immediately responded to the request to help SCUSD strengthen its summer camp program.
Gardner had never led a camp before, but quickly tapped into Stanford’s resources, involving students from the HB-REX summer internship program and the Graduate School of Education, as well as the Haas Center for Public Service, which provided scholarships for students. A group of students from the School of Earth, Energy, and Environmental Sciences, now part of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, designed the camp curriculum for their senior thesis project.
The camp has grown each year since then, serving more children and with more involvement from Stanford students and faculty from all disciplines who want to take on the challenge of getting kids to eat healthier.
The key to getting kids to eat more fruits and vegetables, Gardner said, is that they can maintain those habits throughout their lives, helping to prevent chronic disease. Research from students at camp found that the more involved children are in the process of growing or preparing vegetables, the more likely they are to eat vegetables. When kids hear that their peers have tried foods, they are also more likely to try them, Gardner said.
Dig
Three week-long camps are offered for preschoolers through third graders, and one week-long camp is offered for students in fourth through eighth grades. Each camp is attended by approximately 25 students. There, children learn the science behind where their food comes from — for example, by examining worms or drops of water with a magnifying glass — and gain hands-on cooking experience on the farm, which has several fields, orchards, garden beds, and an outdoor pizza oven. Older students are exposed to more complicated farm work and recipes.
Each week at camp ends with a Friday celebration where families join campers in eating handmade pizza filled with vegetables grown and prepared by the campers.
Scarlett makes her own pizza on the last day of Farm to Table Camp. Families gather with other campers to eat handmade pizza made with vegetables grown and prepared by the campers. | Shelley Anderson/Cage and Aquarium
“Children learn in different ways. Some children have no problem hearing it from a book, but we also know that children learn better through hands-on experience,” says Natacha Costa, the farm’s site manager who oversees the Farm to Table Camp. “It’s a fun camp. We not only teach them about farming and where food comes from, but also how we turn all the food we grow here into simple recipes that they enjoy.”
Nico Estrada, 7, has been attending the camp for several years. “I like the camp because I get to try new things. I tried plums, they’re pretty good,” he said. “I like it because I get to taste them, and if I like them, I can eat more of them.”
Kai prepares pizza with home-grown vegetables for the family reunion on the last day of the Farm to Table Camp. | Shelley Anderson/Cage and Aquarium
According to Kathie Kanavel, SCUSD assistant superintendent, the camp fits perfectly with the district’s ongoing environmental education and sustainability efforts. The district uses the farm for educational trips year-round, and several departments, such as early learning and after-school programs, coexist on the farm. Food harvested on the farm is used each week in the district’s cafeterias or sold at the community stand, and the district employs its own farmer.
The data generated by Farm to Table Camp researchers will be shared with the district, which will use it to figure out how to better support children in eating more fruits and vegetables—whether in the classroom or in its after-school programs.
The Santa Clara Unified School District’s 11-acre farm in Sunnyvale features several fields, orchards, garden beds and an outdoor pizza oven. | Shelley Anderson/Cage and Aquarium
“Bringing research into our programs has long been a value we hold,” Kanavel said. “We leverage the expertise of our educators and combine it with Stanford’s research in environmental science and sustainability to enhance student success.”
Lifelong habits
After campers shared how they used their kale and carrots, counselors handed out rosemary, cilantro and basil, which the children excitedly clutched as they left the area, packed up their things and headed home.
The camp organizers hope that it can benefit even more children in the future and become a model for other districts.
Linda Koh, a public health nurse and postdoctoral fellow at the Stanford Prevention Research Center, has been supporting the camp for several years by applying for grants to expand its work. Last year, she received a $100,000 grant from the Ardmore Institute of Health. Some of those funds will go toward installing a greenhouse on the farm, developing the camp curriculum and training camp counselors and researchers.
Koh says the camp is a great way to help children develop healthy habits that they can then maintain. “If we reach out to them early and teach them the importance of good nutrition and easy, simple ways to incorporate it into their diet, they will benefit for a lifetime.”
