DPS healthy meals get national attention

6:09 PM, Sep 17, 2012   |    comments
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DENVER - Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Education Secretary Arne Duncan were in Colorado Monday to promote healthy food.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius had lunch with Lowry Elementary School students. They talked about the food served in the cafeteria.

As with all Denver Public Schools, lunch is made from scratch every day, but Lowry Elementary is one of 20 DPS schools with its own garden.

"I'm very proud of what we're doing here," DPS Executive Director of Food Services Theresa Hafner said. "I'm proud of the food that we're serving to the kids. It's definitely very healthy. We've always served healthy foods but now it has a shorter distance from the garden or farm to the table."

The two Obama Cabinet members will met with students, parents and staff at a school lunchroom to discuss healthy eating. They will then join students outside for sports and fitness activities.

They are being be joined by Gov. John Hickenlooper and Colorado's two U.S. senators for the event.

Princess Greene is one of the cooks at Lowry.

"I have some kids that have never ate a salad before in their lives, and they come through our salad bar, eat a salad and they're in love," she said.

The gardens are tended to by parents in the school's community.

Hafner says the school district would like to start more gardens but needs more parent volunteers.

(KUSA-TV © 2012 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)