What Is That Good For?

As a team, we came up with the idea of a visual diagram for children to reference while choosing foods to eat.

Please feel free to print this picture and post it on your refrigerator!  Remember, learning about new foods is FUN!

A special thanks to Jennifer for the wonderful artwork!

Healthy Snacks and More

When my son was only two years old, I noticed his behavior changed. He was more difficult to deal with and at times seemed hyper and unruly. I know...sounds like a case of the terrible two's. His mood was often affected by the foods he was eating. Like many new moms, I had been buying the cereals, fruit snacks, and other goodies he was asking for at the grocery store. I began reading labels and seeing the additives, artificial flavors, and colors in those foods. It was hard to find kid friendly food on the shelf that did not contain those things. I made the choice to start making snacks from scratch instead of buying those prepackaged goodies from the store. Gradually I saw a change in his behavior. He was by no means an angel, however his behavior became more manageable. Now he is 14 years old and loves whole wheat bread, brown rice, and he drinks water. He really cares about what he puts in his body. We want all our children to care about their health and nutrition. Visit this link for healthy snack ideas that are easy to make. There is lots of great information at this site!
American Dietetic Association

The Week of the Young Child

   The Week of the Young Child Celebration is a community event for children, parent's, educator's and others who are interested in helping children throughout the community. Vendors, entertainers, and all who have a passion for making a difference.  Mt. San Jacinto College sponsored this four hour celebration in San Jacinto last Saturday, April 17, 2010. It was a wonderful day. Our booth, created for promoting eating healthy, welcomed hundreds of visitors. Tiffiny, Maureen, and I actually put our ideas and preparation for this event into action within one week. We went from store to store in search of donations of fresh produce and produce seed to hand out to each child that walked through the booth. We gathered fliers, seeds and other needed supplies and we created a wonderful booth for promoting healthy nutrition. We created fun games to teach children recognize the difference between healthy and unhealthy foods. Each child walked in curious,  learned what healthy foods are, and left with a piece of real whole fruit to eat or take home.  Henry's in Hemet was our biggest contributor. They were the first to be asked and the first to say yes. Fresh and Easy donated multiple pieces of fresh fruit and Nutrilite gave us a generous amount of seeds and educational materials to hand out. We are thankful to all of those who chose to participate in our cause for promoting a healthy and nutritious diet for children and their families. We believe that it is necessary to teach our children, as well as ourselves the importance of nutrition. The three of us hope to spread awareness of the benefits of eating healthy and why it is vital to our growing children to live healthy lives....