Taste tests are being held every month at Dexter Community Schools, to help students eat healthier "one bite at a time", reports a recent article. Students now have the opportunity to try fresh local fruits and veggies from their own school gardens, and from local farmers. Produce that is taste tested and enjoyed by students and staff then becomes incorporated into the schools menu. With funding from the Chelsea Area Wellness Foundation, through the 5 Healthy Towns Project the school has been incorporating a farm to school approach since 2011, their school gardens also are helping the children learn about growing produce, as well as trying new foods. One of the parents in the school, mentioned in the article talks about how she got kids excited about eating healthy. “I did a ...
Can a rap song or graffiti art help kids eat healthier? Dr. Kevin Strong wanted to give it a shot and compete with the unhealthy marketing that kids—especially Latinos—are bombarded with daily. So founded the “Dunk the Junk” movement to work in schools and through social media to tailor health messages to kids in a fun way to counter junk food advertising. He uses rap, hip-hop dance, basketball, and graffiti art to change what kids think is cool to eat. “I love basketball and I would see a million junk food ads every time I watched,” Strong told Style101 Magazine. “I was just really saddened by the all children that are coming in [to my clinic] real young, devastated by junk food exposure.”
The Need for Counter Marketing
In his many years as a community ...
Doctors know that fresh vegetables are better for patients, so why not serve patients what the doctor recommends? St. Luke's Hospital has been doing just that since 2014 when they changed the way Hospitals provide for their patients by incorporating an organic farm within their hospital development plan. Going the extra mile St. Luke's is actually serving their patients the diet they recommend, fresh organics foods. What does a farm hospital look like? How about land on the hospital campus with rows of fresh spinach to make salads for their patients, and delicious organic sweet potatoes? The hospital works with the Rodale Institute to keep the organic farm in motion while harvesting over 44,000 pounds of food for patients, employees and visitors over six network hospitals ...
How would a city kid know how to milk a goat? Or grow fresh spinach? Steve’s Camp at Horizon Farms in New York just might be the answer. This fresh farm idea for high school teens allow them to jump right into farm life for a unforgettable hands-on experience about living a self-sustainable life. Students learn the camp’s core tenets of how to have a healthy body, healthy heart and a healthy mind. Many Latino teens live in urban areas within New York that have barriers to living healthy, including food deserts and little access to open green space. Also, Latino teens are less likely to eat fruits and vegetables and more likely to have diabetes than their non-white peers. Camp youth learn self-sufficient skills on how to implement healthier cooking at home with cooking ...
Access to fresh fruits and vegetables is vital for the Latino population of Philadelphia, constituting over 12 percent of the population. The grant will fund programing that not only incorporates fresh food from local farms into schools, but also lessons in gardening and farming to over 14,000 students. Many Latino parents rely on schools to help provide nutrition to their families as sometimes this is the main source of nutritious food provided through free school breakfasts and lunches. Although there has been struggle for funding in the past to provide fresher food options, federal grants are providing 13 full-service kitchens to be reopened in the schools as well. To read more about this healthy change in Philly Schools, click ...
How great would it be to win a free salad bar for your school? A contest sponsored by Vollrath is offering a free salad bar for a local school. To be a valid contestant you must enter by August 15, 2015, click here to enter the ...
How can WIC and SNAP participants have easier access to farmers markets? How about a Pop-up Farmers Market? This mobile farmers market in Portland that looks like a 20th buggy car or some type of a new bike. Although it looks strange, it may help the over 48,600 Latinos living in the area avoid living in food deserts by providing healthy food access. Accepting WIC and SNAP, this fresh market allows members to even match dollar per dollar for food to encourage everyone to eat more fruits and vegetables. Fresh veggies and fruit such as berries, green beans, and summer squash are available. To see more, click ...
Having access to healthier foods is becoming easier in certain schools there is a growing trend for students to grow gardens in the small green spaces around the school. What about pre-school aged kids? Can they learn to garden? All aged kids need vegetables and fruits in their diet, especially Latino kids who's population only continues to grow according to studies. USDA now has a resource that answers the questions many parents or school leaders may wonder in trying to put in place a farm to pre-school garden. To learn more about how Latino preschool kids can grow their school gardens, click ...
Clean water access for Californians is a large issue for many rural latino families. California has the largest Latino population in the U.S. and unfortunately many without access to uncontaminated drinking water. According to the Community Water Center, California’s San Joaquin Valley has the highest rates of contaminated drinking water as well as the greatest number of public water systems with Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) violations in the state. The good news is that Federal and State investments along with California-based organizations are working on water quality and quantity in the dry state. A new partnership focused on conserving and restoring Sierra-Cascade California Headwaters will work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and other partners to ...
