In celebration of Nation Health and Nutrition Month, Project MANA is hosting a "Fruit and Vegetable Challenge" at Incline Elementary Schools to encourage students to make healthy food choices. Each child is keeping track of how many fruits and veggies they eat over the week, and the class that eats the most will receive an award at the beginning of next week.

"It's an event that celebrates being healthy," said Project MANA Nutrition Education Coordinator Rebecca Logan. "It changes the mood around fruits and veggies - if it's a competition, the kids think it's fun and exciting."

Third-grader Aimee Dougherty, who was eating a salad and pears with her lunch Wednesday, said she's doing very well in the fruit and vegetable challenge.

"I get 24 (points) every day," she said. "In the morning I drink orange juice and have a banana or an apple, at night I have a salad.

Not only does the challenge encourage the kids to eat more fruits and vegetables, it also teaches them the value of eating healthy.

"It's healthy because it helps the body work and it cleans out the bad stuff that's in your body," Aimee said.

Aimee's classmates agreed, as they picked out apples and carrots, salad and even brocolli from the salad bar.

"I'm always pleased to see the veggies, they do have more (during the challenge)," said Monica Rice Weldon, librarian and lunch-time supervisor. "I'm surprised to see a lot of celery and a few kids actually get brocolli."

Even those who didn't buy lunch were eager to participate in the challenge and eat healthy.

"(Fruits and veggies) can make you healthy and strong," nine-year-old Sami Lamp said. Her mother made her a salad and packed an apple for lunch. "It's really good for your body - you only have one body, so take care of it."

"I think it's a wonderful endeavor for Project MANA," Principal Frank Garrity said. "We're glad to be a part of it and we're glad they're doing it."

Through its nutrition education program in the elementary schools, Project MANA hopes to combat the obesity epidemic by promoting healthy eating.

The organization also incorporates nutritious foods into their food distributions in Incline Village, Kings Beach and Truckee. Project MANA serves an average of 300 meals per day, Executive Director George LeBard said.

"As food providers, we cannot tell our clients what to eat," LeBard said. "But we can do our part to combat the obesity epidemic by promoting good nutrition. We can also limit the amount of fatty foods given out at our distributions and make sure we provide fresh produce, whole grains and dairy products - healthy eating can be fun."