EAST GARFIELD PARK — Campbell charter school, 212 S. Francisco Ave., in East Garfield Park, is in the middle of a food desert — so students decided to open their own healthy snack food store.
Snacks like fresh strawberries, grapes, granola bars, baked Lay's, SunChips and more line the shelves in their small store inside the school, which is part of the LEARN Charter School Network. Each item costs 50 cents or $1 and is labeled with one of three colored stickers to indicate just how healthy it is.
A group of teachers donated their own money, and with a little help from parents the students were able to open the store on May 8. They raised about $600.
The store, which serves 440 kids at the school, is open three days a week before school and at lunchtime.
It "made my school day better because I have more opportunities to eat healthier snacks,” said fifth-grader Tierra Haggard, 11.
Her favorite item to buy is Naked juice, which is far healthier than pop. When that runs out — which happens a lot— she prefers the granola bars.
When students are buying snacks from the store they’re not wasting their money, she said.
Monique Allen, also in fifth grade, has a volunteer job stocking and pushing the snack cart, which she brings to kindergarten through third-grade students who eat lunch in their classrooms.
“I like working because it’s a good experience for me,” she said, adding that she enjoys teaching the young students about new snacks and why they should try them.
Students buy snacks from the healthy snack cart. [DNAinfo/Andrea V. Watson]
Some students said before the store opened they would skip lunch if there was something on the menu they didn’t like.
“I didn’t really used to eat lunch,” said Ja’Mirah Mister, 10, who loves the SunChips, which experts say are healthy as long as you don't eat too many.
“I like it because it makes more people want to eat healthier,” said fourth-grader Samarri Anderson. She has been encouraging her classmates to stop eating Doritos and other unhealthy chips, she said.
Fifth-grade teacher Marcel Rockett was one of the teachers who helped the students get the store up and running.
Sylesha Brewer (left) and Marcel Rockett with student workers [DNAinfo/Andrea V. Watson]
“These kids don’t always ask their parents to make a lunch, so they would just skip out on it,” he said, adding that oftentimes he found himself at the vending machine buying them snacks.
“I was like this would be a huge vending machine that they can come in and have better choices instead of not having anything at all,” he said.
The students had participated in WE Day — an international celebration of efforts to improve the world. The movement is year-round, but the annual event kicked off in February. Rockett said after the project the students wanted to find something else positive to do throughout the school year.
There are skills that come with this new project, he said.
For example, Sylesha Brewer, a fourth-grade math and science teacher, has been helping students understand nutrition. She has discussed why they should have a healthy lifestyle.
Rockett approached her and said some of the students suggested they open a healthy snack store.
“I was like, 'There’s definitely a need here,'” Brewer said.
She then started to discuss food deserts with the students and found out that they didn’t really have anywhere to go for healthy foods and snacks.
The school would provide oranges and apples, but the students were getting tired of them, she said.
Now they have other options, Brewer said.
Anthony McCray teaches fourth grade and said the ultimate goal is to expand the store and create a rec room for the students, although they need to raise more money to do so.
It would be "more of an incentive for those who are doing what they are supposed to do — staying out of trouble, getting good grades and overall demonstrating the core values of learning," McCray said.
Principal Karin McGuire said she's big fan of the store, a collaboration between students and teachers.
“I’m super excited,” she said.
They’re also planning to donate a portion of the store’s proceeds to families in Kenya.
