VALDOSTA — Telling children to eat their fruits and vegetables can oftentimes be as difficult as getting them to finish their math homework.

But through a federally funded grant, three local schools are encouraging their students to try asparagus, mango and muscadines — foods they may not normally be exposed to.

The Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program provides all children in participating schools with a variety of free fresh fruits and vegetables.

The goal of the program is to create healthier school environments by providing healthier food choices and expanding the variety of fruits and vegetables children experience.

The United States Department of Agriculture grant started out as a pilot program, and 2008 is the first year the state of Georgia has been able to participate in the program.

J.L. Lomax Elementary School, Clyattville Elementary School and J.L. Newbern Middle School are feeding their students fresh fruits and vegetables for snacks in the classroom three days a week.

“The grant lets us introduce new fruits and vegetables to the students that we can’t afford through the lunch program or that parents can’t afford,” Valdosta City School System nutritionist Beth Flesher said.

Both Flesher and Lowndes County School System nutritionist Joyce Akins applied for the grant. J.L. Newbern and Clyattville received funding through the grant.

Money for the program at J.L. Lomax is coming through the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Grower’s Association.

“The major purpose of the program is to introduce fruits and vegetables to children, especially those that might not have the opportunity because of the area they are from or their financial situations,” Akins said.

Both Flesher and Akins directed the grant to schools with high need in an effort to help reach out to low-income schools.

“We are trying to impact their diet and health,” Flesher said. “We are trying to combat childhood obesity.”

The three schools Flesher included in her original application have free lunch programs for the entire student body.

Akins said Clyattville was chosen for the grant because it has the highest free and reduced-price lunch count in the system.

Newbern Middle School started their program in September. This is the first week of the program at J.L. Lomax, Flesher said.

At Clyattville, the students get two fruits and one vegetable each week. For the first three weeks of the program at Clyattville Elementary, the fresh food was being given out five days a week. Starting the first of October, the school has moved to three days a week to ensure there will be enough money left in the grant to provide food for the rest of the school year.

The program now runs Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons.

J.L. Lomax and J.L. Newbern receive their snacks on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Both the elementary schools serve their snacks in the afternoon, while the middle school has two grades that serve them in the morning and one in the afternoon.

“We chose to serve it after lunch because at the end of the day needy children might not have as much to eat at night,” Akins said. “We want to send them home with food in their tummy.”

Having the kids try the food in the classroom among their peers as a snack makes a student more likely to eat the food than at lunch or breakfast, Akins said.

“In a classroom situation, the teacher is saying this is good for you and talking about the benefits of the food,” Akins said. “In a small, supervised group, the child is more likely to try it because they are being encouraged by someone they know.”

At lunch, each grade picks up a plastic basket with its class’s fruit or vegetable serving and takes it back to the room for the afternoon snack at Clyattville.

Teachers in the fourth- and fifth-grade have their items already portioned out to ensure valuable learning time is not lost. For the lower grades, the snack is used as a learning lesson on the benefits of a good meal, Akins said.

There is no limit to the serving size, and in the case of peaches and apples, students receive a whole piece of fruit.

They have also received an asparagus stalk and a bunch of broccoli.

To encourage the eating of the vegetables, the grant allows the schools to supply the children with low-fat dressing to spice up the vegetables.

The grant allows the system to fund a staff member an extra hour every day to come in and prepare the food for consumption, Flesher said.

The system has $30,000 to administer the program for one year at the middle school, Flesher said.

Once the food is ordered, the program pays back the school from the invoice, Akins said.

All three schools get their produce from Farmer Brown’s.

The market worked closely with the school to ensure much of the products are locally grown to expose the children to some items that can grow right in their own back yard.

Farmer Brown’s co-owner Phil Ethridge said he tries to purchase as much produce locally, a point that is probably lost on the kids but important for the community.

“It’s important to keep money right here in our own community,” Ethridge said. “But it’s great for the kids to be able to try things like blackberries, blueberries and raspberries, especially kids in the city schools that may not have access to stuff like that.”

Akins said she and Flesher got together and identified the items they would like to include in their grant. They then consulted with Farmer Brown’s on what would be available and when.

The children were recently treated to muscadine grapes and figs. However, the figs weren’t as well received as their smaller, greener cousins, Flesher said.

In the future, Flesher hopes to have mangos and papayas.

As school budgets feel the pressure of the financial crisis wreaking havoc across the country, the program allows schools to still feed kids fresh foods.

With the budget crunch, it becomes cheaper for a school to purchase fruits and vegetables that are frozen or prepackaged rather than fresh for lunch and breakfast, Akins said.

Akins hopes to keep the grant and maybe expand to another school in the future.

Flesher hopes to eventually have the program at all city schools, but the program is only funded yearly by the USDA and only 25 Georgia schools were selected to participate in the program this year.

Each year, Flesher and Akins will have to reapply for the program.

The program first began as a pilot project authorized by Congress in 2002 under the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002.

The initial program provided fresh fruits and vegetables to four states and an Indian Tribal Organization for the 2002-03 school year.

The program was made permanent in 2004 under the National School Lunch Act and expanded to four additional states and two Indian Tribal Organizations for 2004-05.

Six additional states were added in 2006 and the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies Appropriations Act gave the program a one-time funding of $6,000,000.

The 2008 Consolidated Appropriations Act expanded the program nationwide and provided $9.9 million to begin the program for the 2008-09 school year.

The program was also permanently added to the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act, which will provide additional funding of $40 million beginning in 2009.