CCSD Seeking To Become State’s First Eat REAL School System

The Cumberland County School District looks to become Tennessee’s first Eat REAL Certified K-12 system in Tennessee.

District Nutrition Supervisor Kathy Hamby said the district has partnered with Healthier Tennessee of Crossville in pursuit of the certification.

“We’re just partnering with Healthier Tennessee of Crossville to see how we can make healthier changes within the school district,” Hamby said, “but also to try and market and promote a lot of the healthy changes we already see going on in the school system.”

Eat REAL is a national non-profit organization that recognizes schools and businesses that promote better food choices and healthier lifestyles.

Hamby said the district has already seen several improvements in pursuing the Eat REAL certification.

“Through the process, we have already made a lot of meaningful and helpful improvements,” Hamby said. “It includes increasing the fruit and vegetable consumption, especially fresh fruit and vegetable consumption. We’re reducing fruit juices, which all of our juices are 100-percent, but we’re trying to phase those out and get our kids to eat more whole fruit.”

Hamby said the district will also look to offer more scratch cooking to provide healthier meals to students who may not normally receive them.

“Everyone has such busy lives with everything going on, I think a lot of the kids don’t get a lot of the scratch cooking at home anymore,” Hamby said. “Whenever you do scratch cooking, you get better ingredients. You don’t get a lot of the overly-processed and extra ingredients. It’s fewer ingredients and less-processed which is always healthier.”

The Upper Cumberland’s only Eat REAL certified location is Tennessee Tech University, according to Eat REAL Tennessee.