>> Everybody has their favorite when it comes to food.

That's why it's sometimes hard to get everyone to agree on what they want for dinner even on what the youngsters want to take in their lunch to school.

For generations kids have been told to eat their fruits and vegetables, but we know peas and carrots often get passed up for sweets and treats.

But let's take you to Wisconsin where an innovative program connects school children to chefs and local farms to encourage healthy eating.

♪♪ >> Hi everybody.

I'm Chef Liz with REAP.

>> Elizabeth Chapa is giving these Wisconsin seventh graders a class in the art of cooking.

>> Here's the spinach.

All I want you to do is kind of rough chop it.

>> Most of the foods in her recipes are farm fresh vegetables grown within a hundred miles of the school.

>> We live in an age of a lot of single parent households.

And it's rush-rush-rush, go-go-go.

And I think that what we bring to the kids is an opportunity to slow it down, make a meal with local, healthy ingredients, and show that it can be easy.

>> And when you finish, you don't always have to use all of the dressing, you know what I mean?

Put a little bit, toss it on together, see if it needs more.

>> This class in Madison, Wisconsin is part of a national Farm to School Program organized and administered here by Wisconsin's R-E-A-P or REAP Food Group, which stands for Research, Education, Action, and Policy.

>> And it's not a demo.

It's really the kids being able to get in there and chop the vegetables and cook and then share a meal with their friends and the guest chef.

And celebrate food and learn some new skills and usually try some new things.

>> More than a hundred students are involved in the cooking class, which allows the youngsters to prepare...and then...enjoy their culinary creations.

>> My mom like cooks with me, and I love cooking.

So, I'm glad we made this.

>> So the different types of vegetables and fruits that they're not familiar with, that really gives them an insight like realizes that they are a lot different types of vegetables instead of just carrots or just corn or just strawberries.

♪♪ >> Joey Dunscombe is the executive chef of the Weary Traveler restaurant in Madison.

>> He's also another contributor to the Chef-in-the-classroom program.

He says it's been a rewarding experience.

>> Teaching the kids now, they're just going to grow into that.

Hopefully my kids will be in that group, that group of kids that says no, even at 16, I'm going to go to the farmer's market.

>> Dunscombe is also active in another REAP program - their Buy-Fresh Buy-Local project.

>> It's something I can find sporadically locally.

I've got one guy that picks it.

>> Working with a REAP coordinator; he plans his menus around meat and produce he can obtain from local farms.

>> It's a full circle type of thing.

You know, we keep the money in the neighborhood, or at least in the community.

>> With our current estimated numbers we're over three million dollars' worth of local food being purchased from the farmers themselves.

So, it's pretty awesome.

And in the program we have huge support.

We have 37 different restaurants currently.

We have two grocery stores, one being the neighbor to the co-op right to the Weary.

And then we also have two health care providers.

>> And there's another aspect to the REAP program - culinary training for adults.

>> Radishes.

Pretty dirty.

>> Some of these folks are members of Ameri-Corps preparing fresh snacks for Madison's elementary school pupils.

>> I really like the concept of trying to get healthy food into the local schools and working with students who didn't necessarily have a background in growing food or gardening or farming, and kind of bring that understanding of where our food comes from to them.

>> REAP's Chef and Snack programs serve thousands of students in the Madison schools each week and provide a valuable market for fruits and vegetables from more than a dozen regional farms.

>> And our local farmers are really excited.

It's always fun to approach a farmer and explain what we are doing and talk to them.

And they're always so excited that their produce is going to feed kids in the schools.

♪♪