Cultivating Good Health in the Classroom.

GrowingGreat’s volunteer docents teach students why and how to make healthy food choices.

Lessons are delivered at consistent intervals and build on each other, allowing students to absorb and understand what they’ve learned. Moreover, to mitigate the “in one ear and out the other” problem, we begin each new lesson with review questions and discussions about attitude and behavioral changes since the previous lesson.

Lesson themes include:

Feed Your Engine – Proteins, Fats and Carbs

Fuel Up with Whole Close to the Source Foods

High Quality Fuels vs. Low Quality Fuels

Filling Up: What is a Serving Size

Label Reading

High Quality Breakfasts

Cooking with Beneficial Fats

Refueling with Whole Grains

Interpreting Your Body’s Signals

Kids and Advertising

Digestion, Helping Your Body Use Its Fuel

Elimination and Hydration

Fun activities such as preparing foods, role-playing, food-based experiments, and projects provide students with practical tools to make better choices. This approach also encourages them to practice what they learn in their everyday lives.

High quality food samples reinforce the lesson’s objectives and introduce new foods (e.g., hummus, avocado, and goat’s milk yogurt) as well as higher quality versions of common foods (e.g., sprouted whole grain toast with all-fruit spread). The students are so intrigued with tasting and handling the food that the academic lessons become the “icing on the cake.”

Moreover, each student receives a “Grill Me About . . .” parent education handout that contains an outline of the lesson, enrichment activities, and recipes that they can share with their family.