Kindergarten through 3rd grade
4th and 5th grade
Middle School
Parenting Classes
Food Pantry

Kindergarten through 3rd grade
When I teach the fruit and vegetable tasting lesson, named Fear Factor, to K-3 graders I often ask them, "How many of you are trying stuff here that you would never try at home?"  A consistent 50% raise their hands!  The ritual of saying "no" to food at home (and gaining some autonomy there) keeps them from the fabulous foods they have never tried.  In our class together, they know that I will not shove the food in their mouths, make them chomp it, and tickle their throats to make them swallow.  That wouldn't be nice!  But they know that I expect them to be brave. And they are. Some will eat it all. Some will try everything. Some will try some. And, a very few will show their bravery by letting me place all the foods before them to examine (These kids are particularly food shy.) It's all good work on their part.

At the Elementary school where I teach I had the opportunity to watch a Kindergarten Spring Show.  Before s I hopped from chair to chair introducing myself to the parents who'd gathered. They'd say things like, "Oh, YOUR her! My kid's been telling what they're supposed to be eating -- and what they won't eat (because it's too junky)".  It was really great confirmation that, yes indeed, the kid's are taking their new knowledge home with them and sharing it.

A principal of an Elementary school reported to one of our faculty members that one staff person whose son attends the elementary school was at a fast food restaurant with her son not long ago. They stepped up to order and he ordered milk and a salad. His mother looked at him surprised and said “What?” He said “Miss Julie (the NEP instructor) said this is what we should eat.”


Returning for the second year to a 1st grade classroom for Food, Fun, and Reading, I began to teach the children the Handwashing song.  I was delighted when they raised their voices in recognition of the song.  One child said," we know that song! Our teacher taught it to us when we wash our hands".  The teacher then told me she really liked the song from our visits last year and had her children wash their hands more often and in the ways we suggested (such as using the song to make sure they washed long enough to kill the germs).

The teachers at one specific school have continued to be a great support for the program.  Not only do they come up with excellent follow up activities with the kids, but they are also extremely helpful in the classroom.  One teacher always comments on how much she uses the recipes in her own home – especially the Cowboy Salad recipe.  Another teacher and her 3rd Grade class made special holiday presents this year.  They each put together a bag of cornmeal muffin mix (which they mixed and measured themselves) with the recipe in English and Spanish for their families. 

Last spring we did Start Smart at an elementary school. One classroom wrote me thank you letters every week. The teacher would leave them at the office and the receptionist would give them to me. One week she handed them to me and told me that the lessons we were presenting were really having an impact on her son in one of the 3rd grade classes. She said he had started asking her to buy yogurt. He expressed concern over how much sugar his sister was eating and told her she shouldn't eat so much. He also told his mother that they should have more salads for dinner. The family is Latino and salads aren't typically a main part of their meals. I asked her if he had ever made food-related requests before and she said it had only been since we had been teaching the lessons. She was delighted with what he was learning and said he really liked the lessons. She was happy to fill his requests.

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4th and 5th grade – series of nutrition classes
Children’s comments include:

• I like making the smoothies the best.  Because I like fruit a lot, lot, lot!!! It was fun!!!
• I did not know about fiber in the diet.  Now I know a lot.

Teacher’s observations include:

• Students have talked about eating more wheat bread than white bread
• I have observed students making better choices at the salad bar
• My one autistic student now says he needs “calcium” when he eats his yogurt.”
• Students are drinking more water and milk.
• I just think that the program is great and useful to the lives of my students.

Every time I am in the school the kids come up to me and ask if I am coming to their class.  They get so excited for nutrition and always check up on me to see when their next class will be.  Some of the children also attend the classes at the Police Activities League with my co-worker and they always tell me that they saw “my friend’ and what recipes they are doing.  Whenever we do a recipe in class they always ask me specifically for the recipe to take home to their parents.  The Hispanic children also ask me for the Spanish version of the recipe for their parents.  The kids were also really excited when I gave each of them a color copy of the new MyPyramid for Kids.  They thought that was way cool. 

This year I have noticed that they are retaining a lot of the information that we covered last year in class.  They (3rd-6th graders) know exactly where to look to find information on the nutrition facts label and can find specific information (calories, fat, etc.) without help.  Even the 1st and 2nd graders are remembering the information covered last year and have done an excellent job remembering their food groups, despite the change to MyPyramid. 

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Middle School
At a Middle School, I teach a group of 5 to 6 girls in an after school program.  After the first 6 weeks of classes this winter, they all signed up for another 6 weeks of lessons.  The girls really enjoy learning new recipes, and one girl loves to cook for her family so much that her mom decided to give her one night a week where she is in charge of making dinner.  Every week she plans her menu and uses the recipes from our class.   Her family’s favorites are Enchilada Rice, Cowboy Salad, and Splendid Fruit Salad.   The girls also really enjoyed our lesson on food safety.  We did an experiment using agar plates and the girls swabbed different areas of the school for germs.  The principal even agreed to have the girls test his office computer for germs.  The teachers were very impressed with our experiment as well, and they all wanted to know where they could get the agar plates to use with their kids. 

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Parenting Classes
I taught a class where I showed parents how to prepare a nutritious meal and then taught a short nutrition class.  One of the parents indicated that she seldom to never fed her kids fruits or vegetables at home.  Towards the end, one of the boys, age 5, literally jumped for joy yelling “Mom we get salad tonight – I love salad.”  The children never had fruits and vegetables because the parent wasn’t accustomed to eating them.  After our lessons, she said she was surprised that her kids really liked fruits and vegetables.  Now she is trying to incorporate them into her daily meals.

Food Pantry
Each month I bring a recipe and food sample to each of our local Food bank pantry sites.  The people who return to get food assistance and have seen me there several times a year, have started to understand my role and feel comfortable asking more nutrition related questions.  One that surprised me was the person who asked if mushrooms were edible-He had never tried them because he heard they were a fungus.  Another person told me she enjoyed the recipes I brought because they were easy to make and tasted so good.  She said before talking with me she had never really had the confidence to cook before.