Guest speakers were welcomed back into Hardin County Schools in the winter of the 2021-2022 school year. 

Nutrition classes are one of the most common requests received by our schools, so classes were scheduled across multiple schools, and by many grades. Nutrition lessons were offered to every student at Lincoln Trail Elementary School. These classes are provided through the gym teacher, and reach every student- more than 650 students, over the course of the semester. The PE teacher then reinforces and evaluates lessons learned through the remainder of the school year. Reports show that the interactive lessons of relay races, matching activities, coloring, and more are an effective way to teach the students about MyPlate, food groups, and general nutrition. 

Since we have also been doing these lessons in the same school for 5 years now, excluding the 2020 school year, we know that the youth can recall what they’ve learned from year to year, as we ask each grade to recap what they learned during the extension lesson the previous year, and more than half can recount and show signs of knowledge retention. 

At the high school level, the nutrition lessons are taught to every freshman at North Hardin High School through the health classes. Lessons include energy balance, definition of a calorie, physical activity benefits, metabolism, balanced diets vs fad diets, sugar in snacks, and much more.

Reports from the health teachers show that the students are able to recall these lessons throughout the school year.