- Author: Hannah Lee
- Contributor: Emily Harris
In January, Ayer students started their Food Friday Campaign with the goal of eating more fruits and veggies. A total of 559 servings of fruits and veggies were eaten during the four Food Fridays - way to go, Ayer Bears! Congratulations to Mrs. Lee's first grade class for having the largest increase of fruits and veggie consumption over the four weeks! Her class ate almost twice as many fruits and vegetables on the last Food Friday in comparison to the first.
To celebrate Ayer students' hard work with Food Friday, UC CalFresh hosted a MyPlate obstacle course! Check out all of the fun below!
UC CalFresh team members Chris, Hannah, Austin, and Maira, Fresno State Dietetic Intern Alicia and NFCS Advisor Mandeep, couldn't be more excited!
Austin shows kiddos the Fruit Hoops.
Chris the Carrot leads the way across the field.
Students stretch their arms with Hannah.
Maira provides some push-up motivation for these strong students!
Thank you to everyone at Ayer Elementary for helping us put on this wonderful event! Students had a great time and were reminded to get at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day.
- Author: Hannah Lee
Last week Ayer Elementary School kicked off their four week Food Friday campaign, which encourages students to eat the fruits and vegetables provided in the school lunch. Now through February 17th, classes enrolled in the UC CalFresh Nutrition Education Program will be counting how many students eat their fruits and vegetables, and tracking it using the cafeteria's new Nutrition Corner poster pictured below.
Check out UC CalFresh team members Brittanny, Emily, and Hannah with Ayer's new cafeteria Nutrition Corner! It shows how many students ate their fruits and vegetables, the benefits of eating those foods, and what will be in the school lunch on Food Fridays.
Brittanny and Hannah passing out kiwis - yum!
A total of 215 students ate their fruits and vegetables on the first Food Friday! They're off to a great start and hopefully those numbers will continue to go up! Be sure to check back for updates on Ayer's Food Friday!
- Author: Angelica Perez
Have you ever wondered how to enhance a food tasting? In Madera Unified School District, Mrs. Nava decided to make an English assignment activity with a nutrition twist for her 2nd grade class. The English assignment consisted of the students getting into groups to come up with adjectives that described what they thought of the kidney bean tasting they tried in November. Once completed, the assignment was displayed on their classroom's Nutrition Corner.
Trying to fill a nutrition corner with student work or activities doesn't have to be too difficult or take up too much time out of your day. Ideas can sometimes be as easy as combining the assignment you had originally planned, but altering the topic or theme.
Who doesn't like to talk about food?
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Are you a teacher enrolled in the UC CalFresh Nutrition Education Program?
Has your class completed similar nutrition assignments?
- Author: Consuelo Cid
- Editor: Emily Harris
Garden-based learning offers a myriad of benefits to students.
Garden based learning:
- Allows teachers to integrate multiple subject areas like the natural and social sciences, mathematics, language arts, and nutrition.
- Enhances academic achievement.
- Connects students with nature.
- Teaches environmental stewardship.
- Encourages time outdoors.
Gardening grows more than just gardens: it grows students' minds!
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Vang Pao Elementary teacher, Jacquie Henderson, started a school garden during the 2015-2016 academic school year. Henderson is excited to expand her classroom garden this upcoming school year. Let's see what bounty they cultivated this past school year...
Can you guess what's growing at Vang Pao?
If you guessed yellow summer squash and tomatoes, you are correct!
Looks likes it's almost time to harvest again!
The garden was made possible by the work of Henderson's fifth grade class and students in the garden club at Vang Pao Elementary. They did an amazing job, and even donated their first harvest! Students enjoyed tasting the fruits of their labor, or in this case, the vegetables of their labor!
Great job Henderson's fifth grade class! I look forward to seeing what produce you decide to plant this school year.
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Did you know...
August 7-13, 2016 is National Farmers Market Week!
Click here to find a Farmers Market near you to purchase local produce.
- Author: Evelyn Morales
- Editor: Emily Harris
What does it mean to be healthy?
This was the question asked of 120 incoming high school freshmen attending the Summer Bridge Program* for Bullard High in Fresno, California.
In the first of the two sessions, students received EatFit workbooks and learned about setting goals and how to take steps to achieve their goals. Students were able to practice goal setting and develop major and minor fitness goals. In the second session, students were split up into groups and visited multiple stations, each pertaining to different nutrition topics. Stations exposed students to label reading with grains, protein, and sugar-based drinks.
At the final station, we sat down with students and asked them to respond to the following questions:
Is being healthy important to you?
Out of the 90 responses we received, 80 students (89%) responded, "Yes," it was important for them and 10 students (11%) responded, "No," it was not important to them.
We also asked: What does it mean to be healthy?
Being Healthy: 41%
"Being healthy means eating the right foods and getting good exercise."
This was the most common response from the students. Answers from this category consisted of students making better food choices, eating less junk food, being active, living a long, happy life and having a well-balanced life. Students also mentioned aspirations to travel and meet career goals as motivation to be healthy.
Playing Sports: 18%
"To play sports such as soccer, football, track, and cross country."
This group was made up of students who said being healthy meant doing well in sports and being physically fit. Most mentioned sports they currently play or sports teams they hope to be a part of in high school.
It's not important to be healthy: 11%
"Being healthy at an old age is important, but at a young age not necessarily."
Most of the students in this group answered by generally saying they didn't care about being healthy or that they felt it wasn't important to worry about being healthy right now. In one response, a student mentioned that it was important to take care of your body, but not until old age.
Disease: 11%
"[So] you don't end up in the hospital sooner."
These students made a connection between being healthy and getting sick or developing a disease. Students talked about wanting to live a healthy life and not wanting to end up in the hospital. The most common diseases mentioned by students included high blood pressure, diabetes, and cancer.
Weight: 10%
"Being healthy is having a good body."
Ten percent of students mentioned weight status and fat in relation to being healthy. Most responses included students making a weight loss goal or wanting to lose weight.
Family: 9%
"If I am healthy, I get to live longer and spend more time with my family"
Students also mentioned their family and their families' health as the definition of being healthy. Some students mentioned helping their family make healthy choices while others talked about not wanting their family to get sick.
What does this information tell us as nutrition educators?
In this small sample, most incoming freshmen were able to say,"yes, being healthy is important," along with a reason why it was important to them. So what does that information mean to us as nutrition educator's? It actually leads to another question: what can we do to help high school students reach their goals for healthy living? Perhaps this is the first of many conversations we need to have with students in this age group. This is also good information for Fresno Unified School District and the UC CalFresh Nutrition Education Program as we embark on our second year of implementing the Smarter Lunchrooms Movement district wide. In the fall we will be diving into high school campuses and cafeterias. How can we provide the best information and resources to help students reach their goals to live healthy lives? Personally speaking, I'm excited to head into the uncharted waters of the high school campuses for the Smarter Lunchrooms Movement. This can be an opportunity where our UC CalFresh team can impact students and the way they think about health.
What do you think it means to be healthy? Let us know in the comment section below.
*The Summer Bridge program provides resources for students who could benefit from additional support in the transition from middle school to high school. The UC CalFresh Nutrition Education Program worked with Bullard High counselors to teach lessons from the EatFit curriculum to students attending the summer session.
