Students at George Elementary School in Springdale are eating more fruits and vegetables after learning about nutrition through the GardenCorps program, said Annette Freeman, principal.

This is the first year the Springdale School District has had GardenCorps and FoodCorps service members in the schools, said Mary Miller, district health coordinator. The programs help students learn about nutrition and healthy eating habits, she said. Both programs are part of AmeriCorps, a national program focused on community service.

District officials wanted to start the programs to help reduce student obesity, Miller said. According to the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement website 45.7 percent of students in the district were obese during the 2012-13 school year.

Bayyari and Harp Elementary schools each have a FoodCorps service member, and George has a GardenCorps service member, Miller said.

A garden was planted at George a few years ago, but the FoodCorps service members got the students more involved with it this year, Freeman said. The main result she’s seen is children are choosing different foods in the cafeteria.

Employees used to put out 2 pounds of lettuce each day, Freeman said. Now, they put out 8 pounds.

“No telling what we’ll be serving by the spring,” Freeman said.

Fourth-graders lined up at the salad bar in the George cafeteria Friday. They piled produce on their trays, including grapes, bananas, lettuce and broccoli. A paper sign on the side of the salad bar read, “Only take what you are going to eat!”

Haley Walton, 10, works on the school garden with the GardenCorps service member and other students. She said she eats salad every day in the cafeteria, something she didn’t do before working on the garden.

Eathan Thiecke, 9, also is in the garden club at George. He said he ate his first pepper while working in the garden. He learned recently about what cold weather, snow and ice does to growing vegetables.

“Something inside just blows up, and you can’t eat it anymore,” he said.

District officials have to apply to get service members and pay $5,000 for each one, Miller said. The Walmart Foundation contributed $10,000 to pay for the two FoodCorps members, leaving the district to pay $5,000 for the GardenCorps member.

FoodCorps officials generally choose participating schools that have a free and reduced-price lunch of at least 50 percent, said Rachel Spencer, state leader for the program. All Springdale schools met this requirement.

“There is so much need for this everywhere, but we don’t have an unlimited number of service members, unfortunately,” Spencer said.

Springdale applied after being inspired by FoodCorps service members in the Fayetteville School District, Miller said. Miller also is the secretary for the Coordinated School Health Committee in Fayetteville, where she learned about the program.

Fayetteville had two service members last year and two this year, said Dana Smith, district sustainability coordinator. Service members in Fayetteville and Springdale make time to meet with each other about what they’re doing in the schools.

“There’s a lot we can learn from each other,” she said.

A service member in Fayetteville develops curriculum in the middle schools based around school gardens, Smith said. The other works to get local food into schools. The Fayetteville program focuses on younger students.

“Younger students are more receptive,” Smith said. “They haven’t formed their eating habits yet.”

Destiny Schlinker, Springdale service member at Harp, said the program can be compared to the Peace Corps, except it’s in the U.S. Harp had a school garden before Schlinker started working there, but she was able to help the school get six chickens. She also helped start an after-school cooking program, does food tastings with students and is working with area farmers to bring local produce to the school cafeteria.

“It’s a great way to stimulate the local economy,” she said.

The biggest challenge with local produce in schools is finding a way to make it sustainable, Schlinker said. Prices are higher for the produce she wants because it’s organic and it would take a lot of produce for the 22,000 students in the district.

The three schools are going to have one meal in the spring with all local produce, Miller said.

The programs are not meant to be in the schools on a long-term basis, Smith said. The point is to establish activities and lessons that teachers can use after the service members are gone.

The programs connect to math and English Common Core requirements, Schlinker said. She makes sure to teach vocabulary words in the lessons and connect activities with lessons in the classroom.

The program also revolves around hands-on learning, Spencer said. Students become more engaged when they’re holding a shovel or working on something with their own hands.

“Not all kids enjoy sitting at a desk,” she said.

Learning in a hands-on way through gardens also gives students a sense of ownership, Smith said.

“You plant something as a seed and it takes time,” she said. “It becomes an enjoyable act to eat.”