Food is Elementary

A Tri-Cities Program gets Serious about Healthy Foods

In the past two decades, obesity has become a serious epidemic across our nation. Many consider obesity to be the most serious health risk of our time, as it is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, arthritis, cancer, and other chronic diseases.

In Benton and Franklin Counties in southeast Washington, this health problem is especially pervasive. Across America, it is estimated that about one third of the adult population is obese. However, according to 2006 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data, 62 percent of the population in the Benton and Franklin counties is either obese or overweight. A recent report by The Gilmore Research Group suggests that these numbers are rising to dangerous levels in the greater Tri-City area.

In the past 40 years, obesity rates have quadrupled in for children ages 6 to 11, and tripled for adolescents age 12 to 19. The 2006 Institute of Medicine reports that one third of all children and adolescents in the United States are at risk for becoming obese. In fact, elementary school-age children are projected to be the first generation not to outlive their parents due to obesity and its related complications.

The growing prevalence of childhood and adult obesity in the Tri-Cities has prompted the Food and Fitness Coalition, a division of the Benton-Franklin Community Health Alliance, to organize a program called Food is Elementary, which is designed to educate parents and teachers about effective ways to teach children to make healthy choices regarding food. Although children may have opportunities to learn about nutritious foods, they may not know how to choose and prepare these healthy foods.

"This hands-on, interactive program will expose them to the nutritional information, as well as a method to help them choose and eat more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains," said Nancy Lyons, Food and Fitness Co-Chair and Food is Elementary program coordinator. "It has also been shown that children can influence what their parents purchase and prepare if they have had a positive experience with the food."

Food is Elementary targets children because most people adopt lifelong nutritional habits in childhood.

The highly effective intervention curriculum, Food is Elementary, was created by Antonia Demas, PhD, of Cornell University in 1999. It teaches children about food, nutrition, culture, and healthy living using an innovative and vibrant, hands-on approach. The program uses educational principles such as math and critical thinking to educate children about the relationship between food choices and disease prevention, and to provide them with practical experience in food preparation. The program is effective among a variety of cultural groups and in low-income districts, and makes use of the free foods given to schools by the National School Lunch Program.

To best implement the project, the Benton Franklin Community Health Alliance sought and received a Healthiest State Mini Grant from the Washington Health Foundation to bring Dr. Demas to the Tri-Cities to speak at a free public, community-wide event on April 10, 2007. There she talked about the importance of teaching kids about "real" food — food in its whole form, and without natural and artificial flavoring. She explained that too often, we consume these flavorings, without really knowing what’s in them. Demas used strawberry flavoring as an example, which contains 40 chemicals (and no strawberries) that are hidden under the umbrella labeling of “strawberry flavoring”.

During the next two days, Demas trained about 30 Food Educators in an interactive two-day workshop. The Food Educators were selected from a variety of volunteers including parents, teachers, nurses, food service workers, and representatives from the Food and Fitness coalition, and other organizations.

"They’re learning about nutrition concepts, safety issues, teaching kids how to cook and the role food has in their mental, physical and emotional health," Dr. Demas told the Tri-City Herald.

During this workshop, the volunteers were split up into groups. Each group prepared a food from a different culture. In addition, the volunteers had to explain how to cook the food, and teach others about the culture from which the food originated.

After attending the workshop, the Food Educators began a pilot program in three to five summer camps in the Tri-Cities region. Nancy Lyons has been instrumental in teaching the children in local summer camps and summer schools about cooking. At a high school health class in Pasco, Lyons not only teaches the teenagers about nutrition, but also introduces them to various foods that many had not tried before then.

"I have seven teens that had never eaten fresh blueberries before," said Lyons. In addition, Lyons teaches the children and adolescents about the different cultures that these foods came from, the geography where they are grown, and all about the trade and history of the foods.

"The curriculum is not a prescription for how to eat," Lyons explained. "It’s not about what you should or shouldn’t eat. It’s more of a respect and appreciation for foods, and how they’re grown and prepared. We can’t be dogmatic because people know the basic info, they just don’t know how to incorporate it into their cooking. The nutrition message is subtle. We show them what’s good, not talk about what’s bad."

Lyons plans to introduce the program to schools in the 2007-08 academic year. During the first half of the year, children will receive 14 one-hour lessons about nutrition, the basics of food preparation, and about safety and hygiene issues while cooking. During the second half of the year, Food Educators will cook with the children, using recipes the kids can reproduce on their own and others that can be served in the school meals program. Lyons sees some challenges in doing so.

"It will be hard to incorporate the program into schools, since a lot of teachers are concerned about the WASL. But we teach children about food using concepts that they learn in schools, such as math, geography, and even history," said Lyons.

The Food is Elementary Project draws on community support in a number of different areas. In addition to a sponsorship by the Food and Fitness Coalition and the Washington Health Foundation grant, the program is also supported by representatives from school districts, hospitals, public health, WSU Extension Service, as well as community groups, local churches and Yokes Markets.

"The community was really receptive about our program,” says Lyons. “And it isn’t just for kids — everyone is encouraged to eat real foods. Nutrition is everybody’s problem. Especially when you consider that the only predictor of how well a kid does on the SAT is if they regularly sit down for a family meal."

The Food and Fitness Coalition plans to follow up on the effective of Food is Elementary in the Tri-Cities by tracking how many children participate in the program and calculating their Body Mass Index (BMI) percentiles, both before and after the program. In addition, the Food and Fitness Coalition will evaluate the increase in children’s nutrition knowledge and food preferences through standardized surveys given before and after the program, and by asking they have tried new recipes or added new foods to their diet.

"It’s important that the kids learn to try healthy foods that they wouldn’t eat otherwise,” Lyons explains. “I had one excited kid come up to me, saying, ‘I tried another vegetable!’ and another admit, ‘I’m learning so much. I didn’t know fat could be so bad for you!’"

Food may be elementary, but this supportive community and innovative program are the key ingredients in a successful recipe for healthy living.

more resources:

For more information about Dr. Demas’ Food is Elementary Program, visit www.foodstudies.org.

For more information about WHF’s Healthiest State Campaign, visit www.healthieststate.org.

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