A grumpy green bean, a sweet strawberry and a batch of mis-colored fruits helped three Irving Elementary students earn valuable prizes such as MP3 players and radios Wednesday.

However, District Nutrition Education Coordinator Tonya Lungstrum said she hopes all Irving students get even more valuable prizes — the prize of good nutrition.

Fourth-grader Anecia Ellis, sixth-grader Miranda Walters and fifth-grader Airi Bravo won prizes for having the best stories in the school’s Love Your Veggies essay contest. The contest was supported through a grant from Hidden Valley salad dressing’s Love Your Veggies program, an effort to help school children learn more about healthy eating, especially vegetables.

“Children don’t understand nutrition,” said Lungstrum, who has been working on grant-funded nutrition education programs at Irving. “They think that just because they are eating something, they’re all right. With the grant, we talk about vitamins, we talk about minerals.”

Through the contest, students picked a fruit or vegetable to write an essay about, Lungstrum said.

Anecia, Miranda and Airi each wrote about several fruits and vegetables. Each got to pick a prize for their winning essays.

Miranda chose a pocket radio with earplugs for her winning story about the awkward relationship between Sally Strawberry and George the Green Bean.

“Fruits and vegetables make you very healthy, and you need them to live,” Miranda said.

Airi, who chose a camera, wrote about how a red carrot, an orange apple, a yellow orange and an orange banana went on adventures with each other. He said his favorite vegetable is a carrot.

Anecia said she likes apples and grapes because they are juicy.

“I know fruits and vegetables are good for you,” she said.

The Love Your Veggies grant helped Irving students do all sorts of nutrition-related activities, Lungstrum said. For example, the school held an eating contest to see how many different fruits and vegetables each student and each class could eat, she said.

Lungstrum said she is working to apply for another Love Your Veggies grant for next year.