The CHOICES nutrition education team has added new classes to their program. Our team is always looking for ways to improve the classes with best practices to help our clients achieve their goals of leading a healthier lifestyle.
Eat Well, Keep Moving and the Healthy Eating Active Time (HEAT) are two of the new curriculums for elementary-school aged children. The classes include learning about My Plate, all the food groups, the importance of being active every day and reducing- screen time.
Other topics include reducing fats and added sugars, maintaining energy balance, and ways to increase fruit and vegetable consumption. Both curriculums improve children’s ability to choose healthier options, and teach students the importance of starting a healthy lifestyle at a young age.
The classes are designed to keep the students engaged and active. Each class starts with a “Cool Move”, which is a short icebreaker or warm-up that may include stretching, dancing or a short game. After the warm-up, a nutrition lesson is followed by an activity that reinforces what they have learned. Each class ends with students making a healthy snack and a copy of the recipe to make the treat at home with their parents.
“Many of the kids look at the snack and think that they might not like it, however as other kids encourage them to try at least a bite of the recipe, 95 percent of the time they end up loving it. They insist on taking the recipe home so they can make it with their parents,” Bilingual Nutrition Educator, Beatriz Bravo, said,
The curriculum also offers a new 8-week class for adults: Eating Smart, Being Active. The team is truly excited to be teaching classes from this well reviewed program.
The classes teach participants about physical activity and nutrition including: eating healthy on a budget, My Plate food groups, choosing lean protein, healthy fats, reading the food label, choosing whole grains and reducing added sugars. The lessons are very interactive and include hands on activities that help individuals make healthy decisions when meal planning. Our clients also get to put together a healthy recipe at the end of class.
The CHOICES Nutrition Education team strives to empower the community with the skills needed to live a healthy life style. For more information about scheduling classes, contact our Nutrition Education Manager, Mary Agnew, RDN, LD at magnew@centraltexasfoodbank.org.
