Brooklyn BP Adams extols the virtues of kale to Brownsville students

A passion to change the borough’s eating habits

May 29, 2018 By Mary Frost Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams spread the gospel of healthy eating with students from Brownsville’s P.S. 327 at the Brooklyn Borough Hall Greenmarket on Tuesday. Photos by Mary Frost

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“Kale is amazing!” Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams enthused Tuesday morning at the Borough Hall Greenmarket. “Kale is one of the most healthy foods you can eat.”

The nutrition-conscious BP shared his passion to change the sometimes-unhealthy eating habits of his borough as he walked dozens of students from Brownsville’s P.S. 327 (Dr. Rose B. English School) through tables piled high with greens and other fruits and vegetables.

As students basked in the warm sun and sampled the green goods, Adams served up a side of math.

“These are two for five dollars, so how many am I going to get?” he said as he stuffed bunches of hearty kale into plastic bags.

“What are you going to do with it?” the kids asked.

“I’m going to make a salad, I’m going to make a green drink — ”

“Ewww!” one little voice rang out.

“You put a banana in it and it tastes great,” Adams said.

“Bananas are healthy,” a child called out.

“Yes they are,” Adams confirmed.

Following a diabetes scare, the BP turned his own health around by changing his eating habits and making lifestyle changes. Since then he has tried to instill the importance of eating plant-based food to his fellow Brooklynites. (Many staff members have caught the healthy eating bug as well, an inside source told this paper.)

In March, Adams and Councilmember Fernando Cabrera introduced a City Council resolution that calls on the city’s Department of Education to ban processed meats (such as bacon, ham, hot dogs and some deli meats) from being served within the city’s public schools. The World Health Organization has classified processed meat as a carcinogen.

The BP is also backing the Meatless Mondays pilot program. More than a dozen schools across Brooklyn are now participating.

In 2015, less than 20 percent of New York City children aged 6 to 12 ate more than five items of fruits and vegetables a day, according to a release from the BP’s office.

Tuesday’s walkthrough followed an assembly on nutrition that Adams led at P.S. 327 a couple weeks ago, and the children appeared comfortable sharing the limelight with the BP.

“The rhubarb sauce was good,” one girl told the Brooklyn Eagle. “When you bite into it you can taste all the different types of vegetables she put in there like the rhubarb and the salad and stuff like that.”

“It was too sour for my taste buds,” said another student. Another girl added, “It has a bad aftertaste.”

“But still it was good when you first bit into it,” the first girl insisted.