Belton students featured in statewide public service announcement

BELTON, Texas (KWTX) - Some students at Belton ISD are enjoying their 15 minutes of fame after they were featured in a series of public service announcements by the Texas Department of Agriculture airing across the state.

Students and staff from South Belton Middle School were chosen by the state to be featured in three 30 second PSAs after the department of Texas Dept. of Agriculture saw a News Ten story from last year highlighting a partnership between Belton ISD and True Harvest Farms-- an innovative lettuce farm in the heart of Belton.

“Of course we told them yes and that we’d be happy to have them come out to one of our locations,” said Donna Shelton, the assistant director for nutritional services at Belton ISD. “They sent a team from New York out and they spent all day on our campus taking video.”

According to staff the team filmed for 6 hours. Several students, many of them from the school’s theatre program were front and center in the PSAs.

“They were like ‘don’t look at the camera, just act like you’re getting normal lunch,’” said 7th grader Ciara Patridge. “I was like ‘oh my gosh I’m getting recorded right now and I need to be good but how can I be good if my hands are all sweaty?’”

Staff at Belton ISD said the experience was about giving students a unique life experience while spotlighting the district’s healthy eating initiatives.

“We have reached out to different companies and vendors to see what products we can bring in for the children to eat and that they would like to eat to encourage them to eat in our cafeterias and to continue this healthy lifestyle,” Shelton said.

The three PSAs featuring Belton ISD are to promote the state department’s Farm Fresh Initiative which promotes Texas agriculture and having local products in schools.

The PSAs were shot last school year but began airing in February this year.

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