Iowa Schools getting fit

Agri News

DECORAH, Iowa -- Brandon Friedlein, a senior at Cedar Ridge High School at Guttenberg, got involved with the Northeast Iowa Food and Fitness Initiative as a sophomore.

He was awarded a mini-grant from the Food and Farm Coalition, now a part of the initiative, to buy lights for his greenhouse. For his FFA supervised agricultural experience project, Friedlein grows fruits, vegetables and bedding plants, packages garden seeds for retail sale, and sells his produce at the local farmers market. He managed the market until this year, a job he relinquished because he will be attending college.

He got involved in forming a health and wellness committee in his school with school nurse Renae Kraus and family and consumer science teacher Joyce Cherne.

Committee members worked with food service staff to offer a salad bar option as part of the lunch program. They got the school to remove a junk food vending machine and replace it with one that offers vegetables, fruits, bagels, milk and juice. Family and consumer science students stock the machine. The committee also organized a community health fair.

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