Healthy Eating Can Start Young

National Nutrition Month: NTFB’s Nutrition Services Team helps set a strong foundation with its classes for kids and teens.

The 20-plus third graders sitting on a North Texas elementary school gym floor are fidgeting and squirming as North Texas Food Bank Nutrition Education Specialist Quyen Pham starts her lesson on a winter Wednesday morning.

After a clap-a-long game and a loud greeting, Quyen has their attention and is ready to jump back into their four-week series on the five food groups  of the USDA’s MyPlate curriculum.

“We’ve learned about fruits and vegetables, grains and protein,” Quyen says. “Today, we’ll be learning about dairy. Can you tell me what belongs in that group?”

A chorus of hands go up and Quyen calls on students who shout out answers including milk, yogurt, ice cream and cheese.

“Right!” says Quyen. “And dairy is important because it contains calcium, which helps us build strong bones.”

The lesson is one of three Quyen will teach that morning to third through fifth grade students. She and the other members of NTFB’s Nutrition Services team offer nutrition education workshops to students of all ages as well as adults, parents and seniors. Some, like the one at this elementary school, focus on the five food groups and how much of each one should eat for a balanced, healthy diet. Others include hands-on activities, recipe demonstrations and cooking tips, lessons on different nutrition topics like upping your produce intake and more.

Along with its workshops, the team provides virtual resources and healthy recipes, an online newsletter and  they run NTFB’s Nudge Pantry initiative. Nudge Pantries are those that are equipped with signs, shelf tags, recipe cards and other materials meant to encourage, or nudge, neighbors to select healthy foods.

Nutrition Education Workshops are currently offered in five school districts as well as at several community organizations, pantries, senior homes, public libraries, recreation centers and elsewhere.

Quyen says as part of their work with Feeding Texas, they ask each student to take a survey at the beginning and end of their courses. She’s often pleasantly surprised by how much even the youngest of students can learn.

When at high schools, she changes the curriculum up a bit to engage older students. At a school in McKinney, for example, Quyen taught a group of student athletes and focused on the importance of a healthy diet for optimum health and, in turn, athletic performance.

After discussing why protein is important for muscle recovery one morning, she invited students to join her in making a protein-rich and nutritious chicken salad.

“It’s all about developing healthy habits especially at a young age,” Quyen says.

For more information on Nutrition Services, check out all the available resources on NTFB’s website and subscribe to the bimonthly newsletter, Spade & Spoon, here.