EAT YOUR VEGETABLES: Garden State on Your Plate brings Princeton University chefs to local elementary schools this month to help educate children about appreciating locally grown produce. Adorned in chard grown by Jess Niederer of Chicadee Creek Farm in Pennington, the Princeton Tiger is joined by Smitha Haneef, executive director of campus dining; Rob Harbison, executive chef; and Brad Ortega, chef manager.

Swiss chard is about to take over Princeton. During the last two weeks of this month, the ruffly green vegetable with a ruby-red spine will appear in storefronts, window displays, planters, and on menus all over town. Bent Spoon will have chard ice cream on its list of flavors. Mediterra, Olsson’s, and the brand-new Jammin’ Crepes are among the eateries planning to include the crinkly vegetable as part of their offerings.

It’s all part of Garden State on Your Plate, a program taking place in the Princeton Public Schools that brings children together with chefs and local farmers. The goal is to educate young palates and make kids “food literate” from an early age. Funded by a $12,000 grant from Princeton University this year, the program is poised to begin its third season with four sessions each at Community Park, Riverside, Johnson Park, and Littlebrook schools.

“We want to expose the entire elementary school population to well-prepared, locally grown produce, and bring the whole community to the table around the idea that we’re really fortunate to live in the Garden State,” said Karla Cook, a founder with Fran McManus, Dorothy Mullen, and Diane Landis of the Princeton School Gardens Cooperative, Inc. in 2006. Garden State on Your Plate grew out of the school gardens initiative, an edible garden started by Ms. Mullen at Riverside Elementary School.

 “Elementary school is the perfect time to introduce children to new foods. They’re out of their own homes, they’re open to new things,” said Ms. McManus “We have these wonderful chefs because we want this first experience for the children to be the best — the best of what a beet or chard can taste like.”

On October 30, the Princeton School Gardens Cooperative and Ms. Mullen will be among the honorees at the Princeton Family YMCA’s annual Centennial Awards, for outstanding commitment and leadership in improving the community’s health and well-being. Also being honored are Tracy Sipprelle, founder of Bee Fit with Tracy and Make a Child Smile; Dr. Elliott Sigal, past executive vice president, chief scientific officer and president of research and development at Bristol-Myers Squibb; and Christoph Hunt, an internist at University Medical Center at Princeton.

Ms. Cook and Ms. McManus spoke about their project last Thursday while seated in the Princeton Public Library’s Terra Libri cafe. Outside on Hinds Plaza, the weekly Princeton Farmers Market was in full swing. “People don’t realize how much farming there is here,” said Ms. Cook, who is the former New Jersey restaurant critic for The New York Times. “When you fly over this part of New Jersey, it’s amazing how many farms there are. And they’re focused on produce.”

Making children and the community aware of that fact is just one goal of Garden State on Your Plate. Designed to reach the district’s 1,320 students in kindergarten through fifth grade and their families as well as teachers and staff members in the schools, it earned rave reviews in its first two years.

“To the kids, these chefs are like rock stars. They want their autographs,” said Shannon Conner, a mother of three girls and the owner of Indigo by Shannon Conner Interiors on Palmer Square. There is a marked difference between the way Ms. Conner’s two teenage daughters, who did not experience the program, and her nine-year-old Littlebrook student, who does, think about food.

“My youngest daughter comes home from these tastings very enthusiastic,” said Ms. Conner, who has been active in efforts to improve school lunches over the years. “She tastes and finds these vegetables that look funny or have scary names, and finds they are actually good. She really enjoys the tastings. It’s a fun thing for them to do. It’s exciting, and the whole school participates.”

Parents help the chefs prepare the vegetables at each session. “There is such an energy; the kids love it,” Ms. Conner enthused. “They do the vegetables raw first, then cooked in some way, and then seasoned in a different way. The kids taste all three and see the differences. Along the way, they are treated with respect in regard to their opinions. Every kid gets to share their thoughts.”

The pilot program of Garden State on Your Plate was in 2010, funded with a grant of $30,000 from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The partners organized 10 tastings in two elementary schools. The funds allowed them to purchase things like kitchen carts and cookware, and also to collect data. “This time around, we know everybody will eat this food,” said Ms. McManus. “So it’s more celebratory.”

Beets were the star of the program last year. Chard will be the focus when the sessions begin October 21 at Community Park, to be followed during the ensuing two weeks at Riverside, Johnson Park, and Littlebrook. The children will be joined by farmer Jess Niederer of Chickadee Creek Farm and chefs Smitha Haneef and Rob Harbison from Princeton University Campus Dining to watch how chard can be prepared and learn how its flavor can be altered.

Cheese and mushrooms are on the roster for November, led by chef Terry Strong of Mediterra and farmer Eran Wajswol of Valley Shepherd Creamery and Phillips Mushroom Farm. April is for asparagus, with Witherspoon Grill chef Chris Graciano and farmers Pam, Gary, and Tannwen Mount of Terhune Orchards. In May, Agricola chef Josh Thomsen and Great Road Farm’s Steve Tomlinson teach the children the joys of radishes.

The chefs go out of their way to include not only the parents, but the children, in preparations at each session. “I believe that the chef giving them a job to do changes the whole calculus of the moment,” said Ms. McManus. “It’s valuable, even when some of the kids choose not to taste. They’re observing their peers, and that’s important.”

Plans are for Garden State On Your Plate to embrace middle school and high school students in the near future. While the high school part, geared to helping nurture an interest in food-related career paths, is still being developed, the middle school section, an after-school cooking program, has been set. Ms. Mullen, known in the community for her work with the Suppers program, will be teaching them food preparation. “The mission is to give children personal, hands-on experience and show them that delicious food and healthy food can be the same as long as you learn how to prepare it,” she said.

Ms. Mullen is also continuing a food and literature project at Riverside School that is an outgrowth of the school gardens program there. “It has been hugely popular and is a real game changer about how children eat,” she said.

The fact that school garden produce is now allowed in the cafeteria makes a big difference. Nutri-Serve, which is the new food service management company for Princeton Public Schools, is participating in the push for educating children about where their food comes from and how it can be prepared.

“One of the things we’re so tickled about is how excited they are to stand by with us at tastings and put the food on their menus,” said Ms. Cook. “We are just so excited about the receptiveness, not only from Nutri-Serve but from the whole embrace of the school system, the businesses, and the town leaders. It’s a myth that kids won’t eat these foods. They just have to be well prepared, and the message is getting across.”