[Gupta:] Welcome back to HOUSE CALL. We're in the midst of our Fit Nation tour to fight obesity. We're visiting universities across the country and getting ideas about how to stop this epidemic.
[Unidentified Female:] We propose that in addition to the new curriculum, there actually be a class that's mandatory for new students where it would be more like a peer mentoring class. You would be paired with someone who is actually a fit college student.
[Unidentified Male:] Let's get college students involved by going down to the elementary schools, to the middle schools, and working out with these kids, actually going out there and being excited about getting fit.
[Gupta:] They were getting excited. Lots of great ideas. Those are just a few of the ideas we got from some of the student leaders at UNC. This week, we're headed out West, stopping at Berkeley, California, where we found a grassroots effort to overhaul kids' perceptions of food. Nestled behind what looks like a typical urban middle school playground, lies an unexpected paradise. A not so secret garden grown completely by young teens.
[Unidentified Male:] Tina, we're twins.
[Gupta:] Berkeley's Martin Luther King Middle School made national headlines when it embraced the edible school yard, a program integrating lessons about gardening, cooking, and a passion for healthy food into just about every class.
[Unidentified Female:] Anybody knows what this one is?
[Unidentified Male:] Parsley. This is parsley, exactly. Flat leaf parsley.
[Gupta:] It's the brain child of a world famous Berkeley restaurant owner, Alice Waters. Waters started edible school yard, worrying about this generation's unhealthy relationship with food.
[Alice Waters, Founder, Edible Schoolyard:] Children are learning sort of out there and fast food nation. We need to reconnect food with agriculture and culture in a pleasurable way.
[Gupta:] But the Edible Schoolyard is only in one school. The district actually seemed to be teaching children at the other schools the opposite lesson about food.
[Ann Cooper:] This is all we're feeding children. I came in and grilled cheese sandwiches came this way. I you know, chef for 33 years. I didn't know grilled cheese sandwiches came in plastic bags.
[Gupta:] So last fall, Waters Foundation brought in an executive chef who calls herself the renegade lunch lady. From her cramped, cooking command center, Ann Cooper spreads the good food gospel to the entire district. In mere months, Cooper radically reshaped the menu. Fried and processed foods, gone. Transfats out. What's in? Steamed veggies, a kid sized salad bar, organic muffins, fresh fruit, even brown rice. The USDA, which regulates school food programs and has closely watched this one, says nationwide school food is improving. That's a slow process, but change is essential.
[Roberto Salazar, Usda:] We recognize that this growing epidemic of obesity, if you will, has been occurring over the past 30 years. And so it's reasonable to expect that it's going to take time to turn that around.
[Gupta:] Cooper hopes her program can speed up the process. And maybe one day, other districts will use hers as a model.
[Cooper:] And I think if we can do it, everybody can do it.
[Gupta:] All right, Ann Cooper. I wish you were around when I was going school. Good stuff. Keep up the good work. And make sure to tune in next week. We're going to meet up with cycling champion Lance Armstrong at the University of Texas. Stay where you are. We're taking your questions about allergies after the break.