Rachel's Service Learning! (A little late)

I was given an amazing opportunity to work with a well known fitness coach and nutritionist on a healthy eating seminar!  Unfortunately, the one I was scheduled to help with was cancelled due to low enrollment, and was post-poned until mid May.  I will still be working with her at this seminar.  We planned to do lots of juicing, cooking, and baking and distribute them to the people who comes to this specific gym.

Although that specific project will have to wait, I took action in my after-school program.  I work with k-2 students at a local program.  These kids bring in the most disgusting of foods for snack and for lunch during school vacation.  Their parents load their bags with processed and fatty foods.  Very rarely do we see a child take out fruits and vegetables.  So we came up with this plan for me to present an eating club at work.  I printed and cut out pictures of all of the foods I see them eating and copied them.  I did the same thing with healthier choices (fruits, vegetables, etc), and copied them, too.  So what I had them do was make their own collage of their favorite foods.  Some of the options were Oreos, chips, fries, McDonald's, fast food items, ice creams, etc.  Then with the healthier foods it was just your normal fruits and vegetables, yogurt, cereals, etc.  I mixed them all up so they couldn't see that there was really a difference.

Once their collages were complete, we went around and shared.  It was interesting, but not surprising, to see their choices.  I saw a correlation between food choices and socioeconomic status.  I was able to look at their EEC voucher status on the attendance while looking at their collages, it was remarkable.  When they were finished sharing, I shared my own collage, which was full of nutrition and healthier choices.  I told them why I like them, and why I didn't eat the things I didn't chose.  I told them about the long term effects, and what it does to our bodies.  I made sure to keep it appropriate for their age.

It took some time to really see a huge difference, but by school vacation (which was last week) a lot of the student who were in my club were bragging about their new food choices! I saw some apples, carrots, and organic fruit snacks.  I even saw much healthier choices at lunchtime.  A lot less lunch ables, that is for sure.  It was interesting, and we are planning to do the club once a month (at least).