New London - After a morning of learning with their eyes and ears, third-graders Lizmarie Kooyip, Christina Amiama and Amyah Manko employed their taste buds Wednesday in a lesson about what's good to eat.

The three girls were among dozens of students at C.B. Jennings Elementary School who sampled butternut squash soup during lunch in the cafeteria, then got a chance to vote on whether they "loved it," "liked it" or just "tried it" but didn't become converts. The votes were tallied later in the day. All three girls, like many other children at Jennings, said this was their first taste of the nutritious orange vegetable, since their families do not serve it at home.

"It was good. It tasted like oatmeal," Lizmarie said, and her classmates agreed.

"I saw some in a box and asked my father to get some, but he said 'no' because he didn't know what it was," said Amyah, recalling a recent visit to a local farm stand.

The tasting Wednesday was part of the Farm Fresh New London County Schools Project's CT Harvest for Schools Campaign, in which 13 districts are featuring a different locally grown vegetable in their cafeterias each month. Farm Fresh and the CT Harvest initiatives are partnerships of the Ledge Light Health District, FRESH New London and the United Way of Southeastern Connecticut. The project is supported by a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant that funds a coordinator who works with schools, farmers and local organizations to increase the amount of locally grown produce in schools by 1 percent and improve the nutritional value of school lunches. In addition to New London, other districts involved include Norwich, Old Lyme, East Lyme, Montville and Waterford.

Cindy Barry, farm to school project director at Ledge Light, said the Farm Fresh project began last year, and has so far focused on building an organization, learning about school garden programs and determining how to reduce barriers to get more locally grown produce from farms into school cafeterias.

The Harvest for Schools portion of the project started in October, with a taste test early in the month followed by serving that month's featured vegetable as part of the regular lunch offerings, said Samantha Wilson, food service director for New London schools.

"It's exciting for the kids to get to try new things with their friends," she said.

For October, kale was the featured vegetable. It was served as kale chips - a big hit with the students, Wilson said - and raw in a salad, which also was popular. The kale was purchased from Provider Farm in Salem.

"It's all about the way you prepare it," she said. "We chopped it up in bite-sized pieces and served it with apples, tossed with honey mustard dressing."

The squash, she said, came from Cloverleigh Farm in Colchester. Lucy Lyman, the FoodCorps service member who teaches New London students about good nutrition, took charge of the first steps in turning it into a kid-friendly dish, halving and roasting the squash so cafeteria staff could then scoop it out and puree it with chicken stock, chopped carrots and onions, cumin and a bit of heavy cream. Copies of the recipe are sent home to parents.

Wilson said the campaign fits in well with the new federal nutrition guidelines for school lunches, which emphasize increasing the amounts and kinds of fresh vegetables children are eating. By featuring a different fruit or vegetable each month in a fun event, she said, kids are more apt to actually eat the item when they see it on their lunch tray rather than throwing it away.

"We don't want to have well-fed garbage cans," Wilson said.

j.benson@theday.com

Twitter: @BensonJudy