AUBURN — Thanks to a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, four Auburn elementary schools are providing all students with free, healthy vegetables and fruits each school day.

Snacks could be oranges, pears, apples, kiwis or baby carrots with a yogurt dip.

“Every child and every staff member has access to the snack,” Walton Elementary School Principal Michelle McClellan said. “It can’t be smoothies or anything processed or changed.”

Each morning, bowls of fresh fruits or vegetables are brought to each classroom and made available for students.

This year is the first year for Park, Sherwood Heights and Washburn elementary schools. The pilot site, Walton, had the fresh food available all of last year.

“It’s been marvelous for a number of reasons,” McClellan said.

It’s keeping students from eating unhealthy snacks, such as chips, crackers or pastries loaded with salt, sugar and fat, that some used to bring from home.

It’s creating an environment where eating fresh fruits and vegetables is the norm.

Students are more focused and less likely to complain they don’t feel well or act out, McClellan said.

“It’s reduced the number of kids seeing the nurse or principal later in the morning,” she said. “They’re not hungry. When kids are hungry, they don’t always identify what it is, especially the younger ones. You see acting-out behavior. I was floored the first year, last year, when at 11 or 11:30 a.m. I wasn’t seeing kids” as she usually did.

At first she didn’t know why. Then she realized it was the healthy food.

“Teachers have said it’s made such a difference for all our kids.”

— Bonnie Washuk