Increasing knowledge, preference, and availability of pulse crops in K-12 schools

Kelly Ann Atterberry

Despite evidence that incorporating dry beans into the diet reduces risk of heart disease and diabetes, they remain an underutilized food in the U.S. School garden-based education is an effective way to teach K-12 students healthy eating habits, and participants are more likely to consume the targeted food. This study aims to increase dry beans served and consumed in school cafeterias. Effects of a school garden-based pulse education program had positive impacts on student preference and knowledge of dry beans. Post-education, 52% of the students reported they would like more dishes made with dry beans to be served in the school cafeteria, 31% reported eating more dry beans, 35% would like to increase their frequency of eating dry beans, and 43% agreed to a stronger degree that dry beans are a healthy food. The overall increase in preference suggests that students will consume more dry beans if they are made available, thereby increasing healthy eating habits. The barriers and opportunities for school food service staff (SFSS) regarding serving pulses in the school cafeteria are not well understood. This study aims to describe the current methods of pulse preparation and issues regarding serving local and non-local pulses. Respondents said they primarily served 13 items made with pulses and SFSS would benefit from pulse cooking demonstrations and recipe development. The primary pulse source is through major food distributors, but SFSS were interested in purchasing locally-sourced pulses and made efforts to promote healthy food choices. Above all, student demand drives the menu-planning. In Northwest Washington (NW), small-scale growers have been successfully growing dry beans for over 100 years; however, production has not been systematically measured. This study compared NW heirloom with standard dry bean varieties in a non-irrigated trial to determine yield, days to harvest (DTH), cooking time, and protein content. Heirloom and standard varieties did not differ significantly among these variables, except that DTH for heirlooms was 110 and 113 DTH for standard varieties. This study suggests that both regional heirloom and commercial standard dry bean varieties are productive under non-irrigated conditions in NW, and a primary criterion for variety selection in this region is short DTH.

Increasing knowledge, preference, and availability of pulse crops in K-12 schools

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