Hanging out in the 'Lettuce Lounge'

DENVER - Getting children to eat vegetables isn't always easy. You wouldn't know it by the popularity of the Lettuce Lounge, a new salad bar inside a Denver elementary school.

Brown International Academy had a ribbon cutting for the salad bar on Wednesday. It's a pilot program, and is currently the only salad bar of its kind in Denver Public Schools.

Fifth graders are the ones who named it the Lettuce Lounge.

The Lettuce Lounge features mixed salad composed of romaine and iceberg lettuce, spinach and purple cabbage, in addition to raw vegetables, peas and black beans, served with low fat ranch and Italian dressing. The items on the salad bar change so students can try a variety of different vegetables.

Students who choose to participate in the school lunch program have access to the vegetable bar at no additional cost, and may go back for second servings.

"When kids are given options in a school lunch, and can actively select their own food, they are more likely to eat lunch," said Gina O'Brian, a Brown parent and chair of the schools Wellness Committee.

Although the ribbon cutting took place on Wednesday, the Lettuce Lounge has been open for several weeks. Amy HighSmith, a teacher at the school says it is already a big hit.

The school has about 400 students and she estimates that more than 100 of them are going through the salad bar. She says the students are eating the salad because their peers are trying it, and because they are able to make their own salad choices.

There's also an emphasis on food safety, with signs and posters encouraging good vegetable bar etiquette. Students have been taught how to use salad tongs, not to put any salad items back after they have put them on their plate, and the importance of the sneeze guard.

DPS says Brown was selected because of the strong interest of parents and students. If the Lettuce Lounge does well for a period of time, eventually the district hopes to offer salad bars at other schools.