30 Aug Piloting a healthy market at BB Comegys Elementary

This summer we partnered with Benjamin B. Comegys Elementary School in Southwest Philadelphia to test-run a model version of a youth-powered corner market we plan to open in  Summer 2020. Every Wednesday from July 3rd to August 7th, we offered hot and cold prepared meals to students in grades 1-8. At 11:00 am the students would start to trickle into the cafeteria with their hard-earned Rebel Bucks, an original currency we created for students to earn during school and summer program hours.

The bucks are earned in various ways that promote student participation and excitement to do well in school. Some students earned them by helping their teachers during lessons while some earned their bucks for reading a lot of books. The bucks could be used to purchase from our selection of healthy and plant-based foods including vegan lasagna, pasta salad, broccoli-apple salad, vegan ranch dressing with fresh vegetables, vegan banana chocolate chip cookies and different flavors of agua fresca.

Along with the option to purchase food we implemented an “Earn your Rebel Bucks” station where students engaged in activities with the crew, including explaining ways they made other people happy and drawing a picture of a healthy food they would like sold at a corner market. Students also had an opportunity to earn Rebel Bucks by evaluating the food they tasted. The evaluations indicated that we were having a great impact on the students. While students and staff had suggestions on how to improve the food, many students raved about how good the food tasted. This is important because usually vegan food is viewed as something that is not tasty because it’s not what many kids are used to eating.

The younger students seeing high school students make delicious healthy foods gave them the opportunity to learn that different people, regardless of age, gender or race can develop and create healthy deliciousness. This summer we succeeded in sharing healthy eating habits with the students at Comegys Elementary School.