On Wednesday, July 26, the Auburn branch of the Cranston Public Library hosted Farm Fresh Rhode Island for 20 children to learn about the benefits and importance of healthy and local eating.

Miss Patricia and Miss Lily engaged the children with questions about the topics of local, farms, eating healthy foods and they gave examples of eating the rainbow, asking the children to name either fruits or vegetables that had the same colors found in a rainbow.

The children were able to come up with complete lists of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and even purple.

"One important reason to eat local foods, is that it doesn't have to travel very far to reach us. It doesn't need lots of preservatives to keep it fresh and ready to eat," said Patricia.

She also told the children about how eating fresh and local are good for farms, local jobs and the local economies.

After having all the children wash their hands, and explaining the importance of proper food handling safety, they had each child take a turn in helping to prepare the snacks.

Children had the chance to chop vegetables (zucchini, squash and corn) and add seasonings (garlic, onions, salt, etc.) to the quesadilla. Other children got to prepare the ingredients (yogurt, fruit, milk, honey and maple syrup) in the blueberry and strawberry smoothie.

After the food was eaten, the room was polled and all hands were raised for enjoying the smoothie. The quesadilla got an 18 out of 20 approval.

For more information of the programs Farm Fresh Rhode Island provides, check out their web site, http://www.farmfreshri.org/.

To see a complete listing of all library programs, visit www.cranstonlibrary.org.