Two lessons from the library: Eat your veggies and budget your money
As part of its Summer Lunch at the Library program, Sebastopol Library offered two programs—Money Smart and Veggie Tasters—that taught kids financial literacy and expanded their palates
The Sebastopol Library’s free lunch program for children has been running all summer. It ends this week on August 8. Teen Librarian Terra Emerson said the library has served free lunches to 10 to 15 children per day. The library also took advantage of this captive audience to offer two other educational programs for kids: “Fruit and Veggie Tasters” and “Money Smart.”
Eat your veggies (and fruit and herbs)
Emerson said the goal of the Veggie Tasters program, which has been offered every Thursday all summer, is to expand children’s taste palate and build healthy eating habits.
After lunch, children can come up to a child-sized farm stand and try a few less-than-common vegetables and fruits to see if they like them. They win stickers based on how many different fruits and veggies they try.
“So the idea behind the fruit and veggie tasting is getting kids to try new things and experiment, and kind of making it fun and exciting to eat fruits and veggies. Each week we have five different fruits and veggies, an assortment of each and usually some kind of herb,” Emerson said. “If they try three of the things, then they get a sticker. If they try four, they get a bookmark. They try all five, then they’re a super taster so they get a special super-taster sticker, and then they get their name up on the board. We have found that the kids really love it. The parents, of course, really love it, too. We’ve had kids say to their parents, ‘Wow, I’ve never had jicama before. Let’s buy this and eat it at home.’”
There is one more Veggie Tasters event this summer—this Thursday, August 7, from 12:30 pm to 1:15 pm.
Money Smart
A few weeks ago, Sebastopol Library Branch Manager Deb Hoadley’s office desk was hidden behind of wall of boxes filled with school supplies: backpacks, notebooks, pencils, etc.
“All branches of the Sonoma County Library System are doing Money Smart Week,” Hoadley said. “What that does is teach kids how to use money, and they go through and purchase a backpack and school supplies. Every day that week, up to 20 people can sign up, and then they can come in, and the kids can get their backpack and use their play money [provided by the library] to purchase their school supplies.”
This last week those supplies were laid out on tables as part of the Sonoma County Library’s Money Smart program, which was offered at all branches. In Sebastopol, the program was overseen by the library’s two summer interns, Valeria Luna and Elsie Lennox, as well as high school volunteers from Analy.
When kids sign in, they’re given $40 in Otto bucks, play money featuring the image of Otto the Otter, the Sonoma County Library Mascot. They’re also given a checklist where they check off everything they buy with their Otto bucks.
Luna explained the benefit of the Money Smart experience this way: “It’s practicing counting and learning how to use your money, right? Like, the awareness of ‘Oh, if I get this, then I can’t get that.’”
The Sebastopol Library started the week with 100 backpacks and, before opening on Friday, they’d given away 82 of those— filled with school supplies—as part of the Money Smart program.
Fun summer jobs for interns are part of the package
According to the Sonoma County Library website, Sonoma County Library has partnered with Redwood Empire Food Bank since 2015 to produce Lunch at the Library, which is funded by the California Library Association with a grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
That funding also pays for summer interns to staff the program.
Sonoma County Library Education Initiatives Specialist Rachel Icaza explained: “Families have a great time at our lunch program because we have wonderful teen interns who engage the kids with learning and reading activities. It’s so much fun to see our interns blossom over the summer in their first jobs.”
Intern Valeria Luna just graduated from Analy in June, and Intern Elsie Lennox is a senior at Credo High School in Santa Rosa.
It’s been a busy summer, Luna said. “Basically, every week, we make lunches. We set up the lunch for the kids. And then we also make craft activities Tuesdays and Fridays with the kids after lunch. Every Thursday, we do the fruit and veggie tasting.”
They’re also organizing a big party for kids at the end of next week.
“We’re having this big summer party for the kids next Friday,” Lennox said. “We’re doing glitter tattoos, face painting and there’ll be a photo booth and games and stuff like that.”
Lennox invited local families to bring their kids to the party at the library on Friday, August 8, from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm.
Hoadley said the interns were an invaluable part of the Lunch at the Library program.
“They’ve been here all summer. It’s an actual job. They’re getting paid,” Hoadley said. “They had to go through training for Food Safe. They had to learn how to fill out a time sheet. They run that fruit and vegetable tasting, and they help Terra pick out what things they want the kids to taste and then they’re also there to set up the store. They create crafts every week for the kids to do. So yeah, they’re in charge of the whole set up: they clean up, they put things out, they put the menu up on the board. They really do everything.”
What a fabulous story. I especially liked the part about being rewarded for trying foods. I work in a preschool, and we try to reward the kiddos, too, by giving them applause or a stamp on their hand. Sometimes we sing songs about the foods.
Nice story about people building community.
Thank you