Penny Parham is helping students in Miami-Dade County make healthier food choices more easily thanks to highlighted, veggie-promoting "Lean & Green" school lunch food menus. By providing more vegetarian options, officials with the Miami-Dade County Public Schools hope to increase students’ consumption of fruits and vegetables and make healthy food the easy choice. How did they make it happen?
Lean & Green
Penny Parham, the administrative director at Miami-Dade County Public Schools in Florida, realized the school district’s initiative of “Meatless Mondays” were popular for students. However, these vegetarian meal options were only available to students on Mondays. The Miami-Dade school district is the fourth largest in the nation, and having healthy eating ...
You may have heard the saying: “an apple a day keeps the doctor away,” but what if your doctor actually prescribed fruits and vegetables for what ails you? In Forest Grove, Ore., a health clinic and farmers market teamed up to help prevent obesity and fight disease by providing patients with prescriptions for healthy foods. Fruits and vegetables are what the doctor ordered, as Forest Grove families visit their local healthcare providers to eat their way to healthier futures.
Healthy Food Options in Local Neighborhoods
Awareness: Kaely Summers, nutrition, and market access coordinator of Adelante Mujeres, a nonprofit that organizes a farmers’ market in Forest Grove, Ore. (23.1% Latino), was well aware of the dietary health issues faced by community residents. U.S. Latinos ...
Fresh produce can be a rare commodity in Nogales, Ariz., where 17% of children are food insecure. Yolanda Soto saw the need for families all across Arizona to have fresh produce to improve nutrition and fight obesity. When Soto saw still-edible fresh produce being dumped into landfills every day, she had an idea for a fresh produce distribution program that rescues this food and provides it to food, insecure families. The program, Produce on Wheels - With Out Waste (P.O.W.W.O.W), now gives families, churches, communities and schools more access to fresh, nutritious fruits and vegetables that would otherwise be considered garbage.
Food a Crisis in Nogales
Yolanda Soto started helping families in food-insecure areas of Nogales, Ariz. (95% Latino) since January 1996, when she ...
California teen Elena Dennis wanted to help kids have healthy diets. What better way than to encourage them to learn how to make fresh foods? Dennis, while a high school senior, cooked up an idea for a camp that helps kids discover the fun of learning how to cook, and how to prepare and eat healthy foods from scratch. Bringing kids awareness of healthy foods, she also took the camp on local field trips to farms and farmers’ markets.
The Need for Fresh Foods Locally
Awareness: At the young age of 12, Elena Dennis of Novato, Calif. (23.1 % Latino), started developing a passion for cooking thanks to her father’s home-cooked meals and her attendance at Operation C.H.E.F., a nutrition-based cooking summer camp for kids and teens. “I’ve always been a believer in home-cooked ...
In 2009 Douglas Johnson, the new principal at Mountlake Terrace Elementary School in Mountlake Terrace, Wash., realized the enormity of physical inactivity and obesity in his community. Many kids lack safe, quality opportunities for physical activity, which heightens their risk for obesity and disease. Safe biking opportunities provide one avenue to improve the situation. Johnson and other leaders at Mountlake Terrace started taking advantage of existing opportunities offered by local cycling clubs. Soon, they began creating their opportunities and helped bring new bikes, helmets, and a brand-new bike trail to the school to expand students’ ability to get the physical activity they need to stay healthy.
Kids Aren't Playing Enough
In 2009 Douglas Johnson, the new principal ...
Bishop Jose Torres, a father of three girls who plays volleyball in his spare time, was concerned about the lack of health awareness among his congregation in Severn, a suburb of Annapolis, MD. He wanted to do something about it. So with a few dedicated partners, he created a Health Festival for his community. For over five years, the Health Festival has provided much-needed health information and services to hundreds in the community and has even saved a few lives.
Concern Over a Community's Health
Located in Severn, a suburb of the city of Annapolis, MD (16.8% Latino), the Heritage Community Church has a sizeable Latino population. Bishop Jose Torres and the rest of the Church leadership were concerned about the health and health literacy of their congregation ...
In the past 10 years, the Thomas Kelly High School girls’ soccer team has been one of the winningest teams in Chicago. But they don’t even have their own field to practice or play on. The school is in Southwest Chicago’s Brighton Park Neighborhood (83% Latino), an area that is burdened by high rates of obesity and physical inactivity due to less options for safe, quality recreational facilities than other parts of Chicago. The Brighton Park Neighborhood Council (BPNC) organized a campaign to renovate Kelly Park, the park adjacent to Kelly High School, to build a turf football/soccer field to make the park safer for students and families.
The Issue of No Safe Places for Physical Activity
Awareness: Patrick Brosnan, Sara Reschly, and other Brighton Park residents saw how ...
How can one family have an impact on reducing obesity in their school and beyond? Just look at the Surani teen sisters of Corpus Christi, Texas. After learning that their city had been named the fattest in the nation and how obesity is a huge health threat among children, the three girls wanted to take action They, with the help of their parents and others, created several programs to improve children’s health, including the iConquer program to help kids beat obesity by achieving healthy lifestyles starting from the early ages of 3 to 6 years old.
Teen Sisters Aim for Better Health
Fifteen-year-old Zoya Surani, along with sisters Sara (19) and Saherish (16), grew up in a household where healthy choices were commonplace. Their father, a pulmonologist, and mother, a respiratory ...
In 2010, Corpus Christi, Texas, was labeled the “fattest city in the nation” by Men’s Health magazine. A group of local middle school students were not happy about this designation and wanted to do something about it. After speaking to friends and teachers, the students reached out to influential community members to develop interest and support for a health program for elementary students called “Mission FitPossible.” Three years later, the students were high school students and they would wake up an hour early to bring Mission FitPossible to nearby elementary students.
Next Generation to Inherit Fattest City in Texas
Corpus Christi, Texas (59.7% Latino), was labeled the “fattest city in the nation” in 2010. Sarita Damaraju and Doug Hagemeister, who were ...
