Jersey Fresh in the Garden State - New Jersey's Department of Agriculture program to make residents aware of the states agricultural resources

Food and Nutrition, Oct, 1987 by Linda Feldman

JERSEY FRESH In The Garden State

The license plates boast "The Garden State." Schoolchildren will tell you the same. Yet you ride down the New Jersey Turnpike, 12 lanes wide. Industry surrounds you. You wonder where the gardens are.

But they are there. In fact, 60 percent of New Jersey is open spaces--parks, forests, and farms. One-fifth of the entire state is farmland.

"New Jersey is an agricultural state," says Mary Anne McGovern of New Jersey's Department of Agriculture. "We are in the top five states in production of peaches, blueberries, peppers, and eggplant."

McGovern coordinates a 4-year-old statewide campaign known as "Jersey Fresh ... from the Garden State." The campaign is successfully making consumers of all ages more aware of their state's rich agricultural resources.

In New Jersey schools, the Jersey Fresh campaign and other initiatives are teaching students the advantages of eating fresh, local products and helping them understand more about the food they eat.

Several groups are involved

School food service and state people have worked together on the Jersey Fresh campaign. As Joan Strokis, North Brunswick food service director and past president of the New Jersey School Food Service Association, explains, both groups came up with the idea about the same time.

"While I was attending regional and national school food service conventions with colleagues from other parts of the country, I learned that many of them were working more closely with their departments of education and agriculture. I brought these ideas back and we decided we wanted to work with the department of agriculture to promote New Jersey produce.

"At the same time," Strokis continues, "we learned that the state was starting its own public relations campaign to promote Jersey produce. It was quite a coincidence. We met with the state secretary of agriculture, who helped get the department of education interested."

Together, they decided to promote a campaign in September, since that is the best month during the school year for fresh produce.

"Now every year we celebrate 'Jersey Fresh in School Lunch,'" says Strokis, who heads the Jersey Fresh committee for the New Jersey School Food Service Association.

Special events carry out theme

New Jersey schools and state agencies have come up with a variety of ways to celebrate the special month. Schools have had logo and poster contests, passed out promotional packets, and coloring books.

The state department of agriculture produced a colorful poster that hangs on cafeteria walls promoting "Jersey Fresh and School Lunch ... Good Taste is Always in Style." The poster is a photograph of five healthy-looking children with Jersey's own apples, blueberries, corn, peaches, tomatoes, and a carton of milk.

Students are getting the message. "I've found that more youngsters are picking up salads, looking for items that are fresh," says Strokis. "When schools can offer choices, I find more students are choosing salads; fewer are choosing snack items.

"It's not just a dieting trend," Strokis adds. "In meetings with student groups we find they are much more aware of what they are eating. And it's not just girls who are making new choices. Many more young men are also choosing lighter food."

Although North Brunswick schools added a hamburger and french fries line 3 years ago, Strokis says participation in the high school's salad and hot lunch line are now growing and fewer students are choosing fast food type items.

"Maybe the balance is swinging back the other way," she says. "Everything students are hearing and reading about healthy diets is having an impact on them. Students are getting nutrition information from many sources."

One of the obvious sources is their schools and the emphasis their teachers and cafeteria managers place on good nutrition.

From the farm to the lunchroom

Especially during September, Jersey Fresh Month, most food service directors try to use as much local produce as they can. Some make displays of local produce, to encourage the students' recognition of what their state has to offer.

Last year, Diane Jackson, school food service director of Pittman Schools in Gloucester County, took her display of corn stalks, fresh fruits and vegetables, and the department of agriculture poster to various schools to support the Jersey Fresh campaign.

Some food service directors feature names of New Jersey localities on their menus for the month. During September, Susan Downam, food service director of Upper Township School District in Cape May County, advertises what items on her menu are Jersey fresh and the area in the state where they are grown.

Some school food service directors--especially in smaller, more rural areas of south Jersey--make special trips to buy what fresh produce they can. The Jersey growing season is from mid-May through the fall.

Susan Downam buys whatever fresh fruits and vegetables she can find at local markets for her two schools--an elementary and a middle school. "We have tomatoes, radishes, cucumbers, watermelons, and cantaloupes," she says. "I've gone to local farms to get peaches. I'll be using local strawberries at a sports banquet next week."