--- title: School Lunch Recess: How To Get Kids To Eat Fruits and Vegetables description: School children who have recess before lunch are more likely to eat their fruits and vegetables than those who play after eating canonical: https://time.com/3667349/school-lunch-vegetables-recess/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-14T19:48:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:00:05.202Z article:section: Health og:title: Here's How To Get Kids To Eat 54% More Vegetables og:description: A simple schedule change can make produce seem way more appealing og:url: https://time.com/3667349/school-lunch-vegetables-recess/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltabb6b44e274a7168/6987789255a8592ef4a851df/food-healthy-vegetables-chard-carrots.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1929 og:image:height: 1085 og:image:alt: TIME.com stock photos Food Healthy Vegetables Chard Carrots og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's How To Get Kids To Eat 54% More Vegetables twitter:description: A simple schedule change can make produce seem way more appealing twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltabb6b44e274a7168/6987789255a8592ef4a851df/food-healthy-vegetables-chard-carrots.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's How to Get Kids to Eat 54% More Vegetables > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=8471c6bc-9781-40a1-a240-a86cf313c0a1&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Alice Waters on Edible Education [Watch (HLS stream): Alice Waters on Edible Education](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/BRkbfoQ5.m3u8) (4:14)  _Published 2014-04-24. Alice Waters, chef and activist, talks about her project The Edible Schoolyard_  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jan 14, 2015 7:48 PM UTC  Elizabeth Renstrom for TIME  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jan 14, 2015 7:48 PM UTC There’s a way to get school kids to eat more vegetables at lunch, and it has nothing to do with what’s on the menu. Just mess with their schedule, finds a new [study](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0091743514004599) published in the journal _Preventive Medicine:_ Kids who have recess before lunch are more likely to eat their fruits and vegetables than those who play after they eat. The study looked at 2,500 kids in seven Utah elementary schools who participated in the National School Lunch Program, which serves balanced lunches that must include a serving of vegetables with each meal. Three schools switched their schedules to hold recess before lunch, while the other four schools kept recess after lunch. Researchers stood by the garbage cans and measured how many children threw away fruits and vegetables and found that the schedule swap boosted produce consumption by an impressive 54% for elementary school children. That’s because young students tend to rush through their meals and skip the most nutritious parts when lunch is held before recess, the authors say. “Recess is a pretty big deal for most kids. If you have kids \[choose\] between playing and eating their veggies, the time spent playing is going to win most of the time,” said study author Joe Price, an economics professor at Brigham Young University, in a press release. The effect may not hold for children who bring their own lunch, since these kids skip waiting in lines and feel less rushed to get to recess, the authors say. Previous [research](http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9061459&fileId=S1368980013001468) has shown that children in the United States throw away nearly $4 million in fruits and vegetables every day, so an easy schedule swap may be a cheap way to reduce food waste, increase students’ focus in the classroom and improve the diets of American children. “It’s a very simple solution, and it doesn’t cost all that much,” said David Just, study author and Cornell University Professor, in a [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5Hql47eqMQ). “It’s just moving recess before lunch.” _Read next:_ [_Let Your Kids Sleep More For Better Grades_](http://time.com/3663796/for-better-grades-let-your-kids-sleep-more/?xid=time%5Freadnext) [_Listen to the most important stories of the day._](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/?sl%5Fautoplay=true&xid=spl-fullbrief-article) ## Transcript [ SOUND ] Edible education is an idea whose time has come. It's a way of teaching. It has to do with the growing of food and the way that we nourish ourselves. [ MUSIC ] In the mid' 80s and early' 90s, we were really in a fast- food culture, it was also the vice of fast, cheap and easy that had really taken over. Tonight, McDonald is making my family dinner because there's no way I can tell these big brown eyes mommy doesn't have time. And we need to teach children how to nourish themselves. And we need to edible educate every child in America. When I went to the edible school- yard, I was flowered. What I loved most was, the collaboration. The urgency of working together and making things work, of the children taking what they were planting and cutting down and gathering, and bringing it into the kitchen and cooking along with the chef. I also loved the way the chickens walked around [ LAUGH ] and visited everyone. This isn't just a garden in a school, I've never thought of it that way. I always thought about it as a complete [ INAUDIBLE ] that had the cafeteria at the centre. They could learn the value, the cooperation that happens when children cook together. They are having a master chef competition. Each table becomes a team, and they compete with the other two tables in the kitchen to plan a menu, execute the menu, and then present it. They're working independently with no help from any teachers or volunteers. And they are selecting their own vegetables, and timing themselves, and organizing themselves. We need to understand the traditional foods that were so nourishing to people, and we have to learn how to make these things tasty. And it actually tastes good like, it's sweet and spicy, and really nice. When they first saw food like chick peas, [ SOUND ] they didn't want to taste it. You know, the unknown doesn't always look like it's smiling at you, I love to see the children really cooking. I love the way they learned to cut like a chef. They learned to, try food. Honestly the sausage stuff if really good. I used some of the recipes that they can own and if I really like it, then I start trying to cook it. Learning how to cook, learning how to grow food. Everyone needs to know these things, because they're they're essential for our survival. We know about the health issues of fast food, we know about poverty, we know about hunger in America. This is something that there really needs to be taught in a very different way. Children will not immediately change their diets because someone has told them that it would be better to do so. I'm not wanting to tell children what to eat, I'm wanting to win them over. We need to live on the planet together. We need to be good stewards, we need to know how to nourish ourselves, and we need to know how to come to the table. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3667349/school-lunch-vegetables-recess/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3667349/school-lunch-vegetables-recess/"},"headline":"Here's How to Get Kids to Eat 54% More Vegetables","datePublished":"2015-01-14T19:48:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:00:05.202Z","description":"A simple schedule change can make produce seem way more appealing","url":"https://time.com/3667349/school-lunch-vegetables-recess/","keywords":["Diet & Nutrition","Children","diet","Exercise","Education","Research"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltabb6b44e274a7168/6987789255a8592ef4a851df/food-healthy-vegetables-chard-carrots.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltabb6b44e274a7168/6987789255a8592ef4a851df/food-healthy-vegetables-chard-carrots.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TIME.com stock photos Food Healthy Vegetables Chard Carrots","caption":"TIME.com stock photos Food Healthy Vegetables Chard Carrots","creditText":"Elizabeth Renstrom for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/dietnutrition/","name":"Diet & Nutrition"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3667349/school-lunch-vegetables-recess/","name":"Here's How to Get Kids to Eat 54% More Vegetables"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Alice Waters on Edible Education","description":"Alice Waters, chef and activist, talks about her project The Edible Schoolyard","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/BRkbfoQ5/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-04-24T10:24:55.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/BRkbfoQ5.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3667349/school-lunch-vegetables-recess/","duration":"PT4M14S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3667349/school-lunch-vegetables-recess/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```