Healthy Kids Challenge
Welcome to Wednesday WOWS! April 19, 2006
W-wonderful O-opportunities W-with S-schools
....Easy HEAR, SEE, DO action tips each week
HEAR >>>> Provide a message to increase awareness of
knowledge/skills
SEE >>>> Show people HOW to make healthy changes
DO >>>> Help people practice and make
healthy changes
The WOWS Message: School Food Service
Celebration
<
HEAR >
The school year is winding down and before kids break
for summer, make a significant impression with a Fantastic School Food Service
Celebration. All year long the SFS
staff has made the cafeteria an inviting spot for good
nutrition and social enjoyment. Round out the year by
providing a special event that will let the kids know, "School Food
Service works to make healthy eating FUN". Try a unique cafeteria theme
event for a day,
1/2 week or full week! Pick a topic such as "Beach Party",
"Picnic Social", "Art and Music Appreciation", or your
own creative idea! Link with your KidLink team to implement imaginative
learning
activities involving the theme!
< SEE >
Connect with others and build event excitement!
- Promote
the event at teacher and PTO group meetings to develop interest and
enlist helpers!
- Ask
administration to promote over the PA system to increase awareness and
gain student participation.
- Keep it
simple or tie the School Food
Service event with a Spring Field Day. Thereby, linking
playful, healthy eating with fun, active movement!
< DO >
- Once a theme has been determined, choose foods with
appeal!
- "Beach Party" can
allow for seafood variations like imitation crab, or a grilled
fish option along with the breaded, baked choices.
- "Picnic Social"
should
provide standard affair like hot dogs and hamburgers but do try the new
whole grain white buns and a grilled chicken sandwich for a low-fat
choice. Consider a raw fruit/vegetable taste testing table; or an out
of the ordinary cafeteria side dish of raw vegetables like cucumber and
zucchini slices, green pepper, jicama and raw sweet potato strips, along with Ranch dressing for
dipping.
- "Art and Music
Appreciation" might focus on ethnic food options from a few specific
artists' homelands. Serve Italian food choices to represent
Michelangelo or German pretzels for Johann Sebastian Bach.
- Incorporate parents by
asking the PTO
group to assist with decorations, displays and activities during the
meal/meals. Cafeteria displays such as "Variety is the SPICE of Life!", page
11, or "A
Little More and a Little Less", page 29, in the HKC Setting Up for Success booklet,
would get kids and adults talking about healthy food choices. (See
ordering information at
http://www.healthykidschallenge.com/ordermaterials.php)
- Teachers add to the
fun by turning the cafeteria theme into lesson topics in class! For
example, "Beach Party" might elicit "seafood spelling words" or the
science lesson may discuss tides and ocean currents. Incorporate a
nutrition trivia game such as "Food and Fitness Feud", page 47, in the HKC Setting Up for Success booklet.
Add seafood questions to the game by searching "seafood" at
Wikipedia,The Free Encyclopedia ( www.wikipedia.org/ ) to follow the
cafeteria theme.
<><><> HEAR_SEE_DO Tips
for Newsletters
<><><>
Cut and paste a HEAR_SEE_DO tip each week into your own
parent newsletters!
---------------------------------------------------------------
Parents in the School Cafeteria
How long has
it been since you had your last school lunch? Many cafeteria features
have changed as well as what the School Lunch Program provides! Check
out what's new by eating school lunches with your kids routinely. See
the nutrition education and healthy choices your kids are provided in
the school cafeteria these days!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
<><><><>
<><><><>
<><><><>
Thought for the Day
"The only safe ship in a storm is leadership." -- Faye
Wattleton
For questions about Healthy
Kids Challenge, please contact:
Vickie L. James, RD, LD, Director
vickie@healthykidschallenge.com
www.healthykidschallenge.com
1-888-259-6287