Veggie Project Expands To Fight Childhood Obesity

From The Tennessean. Click here to read the full article

Sergio Escafuller hopes to change the way people think about fruit and veggies.

He’s landed his first job at The Veggie Project, which brings farmers’ markets to communities that tend to have the lowest concentrations of grocery stores and poor produce selection.

The project is open for the season, having expanded to six locations this summer.

At eight years old, Sergio knows enough about cabbage, zucchini, green beans and Southern peaches to get customers to leave with an armful of produce.

He uses his warm personality, handwritten signs and chants like ‘get your fruits and veggies to make you healthy” to get people to visit the produce stand.

“Eating fruits and veggies makes my body strong,” the St. Edward student said. “Even if they look disgusting, they are still actually good.”

Sergio is paid veggie bucks for time worked and uses them to buy produce like tomatoes, corn and peaches at the market.

“He is being reaffirmed about the value of vegetables,” said Dalmus Sanchez, Sergio’s mom. “He feels he has a job and is working for something he cares about.

“He wants to eat what he buys with more gusto than he would if I was feeding it to him.”