Floating mylar vegetable balloons, bales of hay and colorful presentations gave Madison Elementary School's gymnasium a festive air Thursday afternoon but the topic students were learning about was serious.

One of the growing problems many children face is obesity and the trend is increasing across the nation. Coos Bay's Food Service Director Tim Watson-Williams came up with a fun, informational way to inform students about better nutrition with "Farm to Market."

"Childhood obesity and proper nutrition are the biggest issues a school's food service program faces," Watson-Williams said. "This is something we are doing to promote awareness and healthy habits at an early age. ... The challenge we have is getting the message out."

Along with a few others, he did that by approaching the subject on two fronts.

Students spent about an hour on Thursday making their way through four different stations that educated them about nutrition, learning about the importance of eating five vegetables a day and how milk makes its way from the cow to the supermarket shelf. A representative from the Oregon Department of Agriculture talked to the students about all the products - about 250 - that are grown in this state from species of grass to blueberries and cattle.

Lunch was the second weapon in Watson-Williams' educational arsenal. Getting students to heap their trays full of vegetables and a few proteins was easy when he employed the use of a fruit or vegetable - from apples to zucchinis - for every letter in the alphabet. Two of the harder letters were 'U' (uglifruit, a cross of a tangerine, orange and grapefruit) and 'X', some e-X-tra fancy starfruit.

"You need to be creative under the circumstances," he said with a chuckle.

Watson-Williams said the farm-to-market event was such a success the school plans to do it once or twice a year.

Fourth-grader Alli Fisher said the event was really cool.

"I liked listening to people tell me more about fruits and vegetables," the 10-year-old said. "I learned that beets grow underground. I didn't know that, but I really didn't think about it before."