CHARLESTON — Let them grow their own veggies, and they’ll not only eat healthier, but fare much better in the classroom while building up self-esteem.

In essence, this is how David Seay, child nutrition director for Fayette County schools, Tuesday described a program that puts children in garden plots to grow vegetables.

Seay told Education Subcommittee A that the Farms to Schools Initiative provides a host of benefits.

So far, two schools have gardens, and a like number will be added next year.

“Kids who do school gardening score much better in math and science,” said Seay, who ran a nutrition program for the Marine Corps for two decades.

“There’s a preconceived notion that there’s a geek thing, the smart guy in math and science is sitting behind a computer. No. The smart guy in math and science is out in a garden or out in the woods. He sees science in everyday life.”

Besides that, Seay told the lawmakers, there exists a “nature deficit disorder,” that finds children spending too little time outdoors nowadays, absorbed in high-tech playthings.

“Which kid is learning more?” he asked.

“The kid outside engaged in gardening, or the kid in front of a TV with a clicker in his hand? We like kids to get dirty. We want to see them outside in the garden working.”

What’s more, Seay said gardening is a handy way to instill the values of nutrition.

“If they grow it, they’ll eat it,” he said.

“Something that engages kids in an activity is the best way to teach them. Kids with behavioral problems excel in gardening. Self-esteem goes up if you’re engaged in gardening, especially for little children. They know, ‘If I don’t water it, I don’t weed it, and I don’t tend it,’ it’s not going to grow.”

Relying on food grown in the county also helps the economy and the environment in the process.

“Lettuce that is shipped from California takes a lot of carbon to get here,” he said.

“Lettuce grown in Fayette County and delivered to schools in the back door doesn’t impact our carbon footprint as much.”

If that is an old-fashioned approach to getting food in schools, consider the program Kristy Blower outlined for the committee.

Blower coordinates the Office of Child Nutrition for the Department of Education and has been working with cooks to teach them food preparation from scratch.

The idea was tested in Cabell County and has begun to spread across the state.

Obviously, personal tastes vary from one region to the other, she said.

“What some kids like in the southern part of the state is not what people like in the northern part of the state,” she said.

The upshot is that children are getting more nutrition at school lunches.

“When you reduce the processed foods,” she told Sen. Dan Foster, D-Kanawha, who inquired about health benefits, “you’re automatically going to reduce the fat.”

Delegate Linda Sumner, R-Raleigh, a retired school teacher in Beckley, applauded the program.

“I am happy to see children are being exposed to fresh cooked food, as opposed to processed,” she said.

Among counties that will have the training by the end of the month are Clay, Fayette, McDowell, Monroe, Nicholas, Pocahontas, Wyoming and Boone.

Yet to train the cooks are Greenbrier, Mercer, Raleigh and Summers counties.

Delegate Rick Moye, D-Raleigh, wondered how this generation, which cut its teeth on fast food, is taking to the style that prevailed decades ago.

“Most of the time, the children love the food,” Blower said.

“They’ve never had a chicken that wasn’t a nugget.”

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com