Claiborne Elementary in Baton Rouge converted part of its campus Monday into a produce market — and kids, not adults, were the shoppers.

Heaping bins of fruits and vegetables quickly disappeared as children filled up shopping bags, grabbing apples, bananas, lemons, limes and Cuties along with cucumbers, peppers, potatoes and tomatoes. And it was all free.

“It’s heavy,” said Zylah Crawford, 6, after she set down her bag of greens, which weighed an estimated 20 pounds, about a third of her weight.

She liked everything she had picked out, but with one exception: “I don’t like tomatoes. We never eat them.”

If the school has another market day, she has one request: “strawberries.”

The youthful shopping spree, dubbed the “Power of Produce,” was organized by a private foundation created by football star Joe Burrow. It’s part of a larger effort to encourage kids to embrace healthier eating habits.

While the former LSU quarterback and Heisman trophy winner was not present Monday, his parents, Jim and Robin, were. Both wore LSU jerseys emblazoned with their son’s number 9.

“He’s always known that the better, healthier foods he eats, the better his body is going to feel,” Jim Burrow said. “He knows even more so now how important it is.”

‘We love Baton Rouge’

The Burrow Foundation has already brought the “Power of Produce” to 15 schools in Cincinnati, home of the Bengals, where Joe Burrow is quarterback. Claiborne Elementary is the foundation’s first school in Baton Rouge — the goal is to bring the program to 10 schools here over the next year.

“We love Baton Rouge and Louisiana and LSU,” Jim Burrow said. “So it all makes sense to give back.”

“Expanding this program, in particular here, is really important,” Robin Burrow said. “Childhood obesity, childhood diabetes, all of it is just skyrocketing, and (changing) that really starts with eating healthy and exercising.”

The focus of the foundation grew out of the speech Joe Burrow gave in December 2019 when he won the Heisman Trophy.

“Coming from southeast Ohio, it’s a very impoverished area and the poverty rate is almost two times the national average,” Burrow said that night. “There’s so many people there that don’t have a lot and I’m up here for all those kids in Athens and Athens County that go home to not a lot of food on the table, hungry after school. You guys can be up here, too.”

Robin Burrow, a former elementary school principal, recalls many children in her school not having enough food at home — their meals at school might be all they would eat. She said she would share those stories at the dinner table.

“It’s something he noticed himself as he got older,” the mother said.

All of the vegetables

Burrow’s foundation had a lot of help Monday. Rouses Supermarkets supplied the produce. Players from three local athletic teams — Catholic High baseball, Glen Oaks High football and Istrouma High — volunteered to hand out the produce.

Several boys who waited at the end of the food line were excited to get their turn. And they weren’t shy about sharing their likes and dislikes.

“I hate cucumbers,” said one boy.

“I like cucumbers,” said another boy.

“I like all of the vegetables,” said yet another boy.

“I like carrots and oranges,” said the second boy.

The produce offered largely avoided the veggies that kids — and adults — tend to dislike, things like beets and Brussels sprouts. Yet, the students were not allowed to just take what they wanted.

Each food item was carefully distributed. A few items you could get only one of. The most you could get was six tomatoes.

The students at Claiborne Elementary were split into three groups. The first group, consisting of the youngest students in the school, sat on the floor and sat through a brief lesson on healthy foods and healthy eating before they were allowed to fill up their produce bags.

The lesson was delivered by Mary Beth Knight, a health and fitness expert in Cincinnati. The Burrow Foundation teamed up with Knight after learning about a healthy food initiative of hers known as Feed The Soul.

“We’re trying to broaden the reach with her program,” Robin Burrow said. “We definitely want to introduce it here in Baton Rouge to the community and the kids here.”

The East Baton Rouge Parish school system welcomes the partnership with the foundation.

“Teaching our students about nutrition and empowering them to make healthier choices is an investment in their future and well-being,” Superintendent LaMont Cole said in a statement. “This experience is not just educational; it’s a celebration of learning and growth that extends beyond the classroom.”

Monday is likely the only time this school year that the Burrow Foundation will visit Claiborne.

However, spokeswoman Amy Wright said the foundation has expansion plans in Baton Rouge, including more visits each year and healthy menus that kids can take home with them. Down the road, the goal is to open a community kitchen in north Baton Rouge, complete with a grocery store, she said.

“All the kids that need it, we want to give them food, anybody that’s hungry,” Wright said. “That’s really the goal.”