Farming groups help kids learn about nutrition
By admin at 17 December, 2008, 11:16 pm
Compare an apple and a bag of chips and decide which is the nutrient-dense snack. Uh, right.
The exercise became surprisingly easy for some midstate kids after they prodded familiar and not-so-familiar fruits and vegetables and learned how the vitamins within each fight disease and nourish growing bodies.
Chips have plenty of salt and fat. Apples have lots of fiber and vitamins. Bellaire Elementary School second-graders got it right away.
“Cauliflower’s good without even cooking,” student Omar Ewideh said.
He was glad to hear that nutrient-dense blueberries are ranked first among foods that power the brain and fight cancer. “I eat them at McDonald’s in their yogurt. Mmm,” Omar said.
As part of a National Farm City Week celebration, Carlisle Area School food service director Kelly Renard put a nutritious spin on a popular Halloween party game. She passed out paper bags and challenged kids to reach in without looking and identity the fruit or vegetable within.
Renard wanted to give kids a fresh view of fruits and vegetables; to see that, in their natural state, they are powerful tools for nourishing growing bodies. It’s a lesson often missed by children whose food comes from the grocery store, processed and sealed in bright, plastic packages.
She had help from Pennsylvania FFA Association, the state Agriculture Department, Pennsylvania Friends of Ag Foundation and PennAg Industries.
It was one of hundreds of functions Britney Marsh will attend as one of this year’s FFA state officers. The 2008 Cumberland Valley graduate and alumni of CV’s FFA club has deferred college for a year. She is traveling the mid-Atlantic region with other high school FFA alumni to deliver agriculture.
No comments yet.