Fruit

Fruits, vegetables and their colors were the themes Monday morning at Marshall Elementary School. Students from kindergarten to sixth grade watched a drama of fruit played out before their eyes as a character named Fanny Farm Fickle tried to persuade a villain called The Painter of the need to have fruits and vegetables every day. Blue and purple represented blueberries and plums, and yellow and orange represented cantaloupe....

Karen S. Kim The grapes that many Armenian patients at Glendale Adventist Medical Center received on their meal trays Wednesday were no ordinary fruits. The grapes had been blessed by the Rev. Vazken Atmajian and the Rev. Ardak Demirjian on Wednesday morning during the hospital's blessing of the grapes ceremony. "This is an ancient ceremony where the first harvest would be brought to the church to be blessed and then served to the poor and needy people," said Atmajian, who serves at St. Mary's Armenian Apostolic Church in Glendale.

Breakfast. What should you have? How about a 4-ounce glass of fruit juice, an 8-ounce bowl of cereal, two slices of French toast with maple syrup, one turkey sausage and an 8-ounce glass of milk? That's pretty nourishing. It should hold you until lunch, when you'll have two slices of whole wheat bread with peanut butter and jelly, a fresh orange, three cookies, 4 ounces of carrot sticks and an 8-ounce glass of fruit punch. That isn't too complicated for the first two meals of the day. Of course, it gets a bit more demanding on the preparer if you multiply each item by 7,000 -- and that's what you have to do when you are in charge of preparing meals at the Los Angeles County Men's Central Jail on any given day. After visiting the facility with members of the Crescenta Valley Sheriff's Station group, I got to wondering about how they went about feeding that many people three times a day. How much food would be required?

SCHOOL LUNCH MENU Today: Hot dog or cheese pizza or chef salad or low-fat yogurt and crackers with a salad bar; or ham and cheese on a french roll with fruit and vegetables. Wednesday: Chicken nuggets or cheese pizza or chef salad or low-fat yogurt, crackers, seasoned rice and a dinner roll with a salad bar; or turkey ham and cheese deli stick with fruit and vegetables. Thursday: Nacho cheese and refried beans with chips or cheese pizza or chef salad or low-fat yogurt and crackers with a salad bar; or turkey ham and cheese on a croissant with fruit and vegetables.