Author: Whitney Paige Alexander
Planning Unit: Logan County CES
Major Program: Nutrition and Food Systems General
Outcome: Long-Term Outcome
According to the national average 41 percent of adolescents between the ages of 10-17 years old are obese. Between the grade levels 9th-12th grade 17 percent of children do not get at least 60 minutes of physical activity each day of the week. Playing video games in this age group has also doubled since 2003 resulting in a national average of 54 percent of children and teenagers who do not get regular exercise. Logan County is a rural, agricultural county made up of six small communities. According to Feeding America, Logan County has 3,320 people with food insecurity. Seventy-four percent of those are below the SNAP and other nutrition program threshold of 200 percent poverty. This can create an issue during the summer for parents having to purchase more food since children and youth are at home all day five days a week .
Paige Alexander contacted Family Resource at Lewisburg Elementary School to teach a nutrition program to students during summer school. Due to students needing childcare or getting caught up on their work summer school was offered to the community. Paige had a variety of grade levels from 2nd- 8th grades. Paige used the Discover MyPlate Curriculum and Teen Cuisine to reach all age levels appropriately. Students gained knowledge in safe food handling techniques, nutritious food choices, knife skills, recipe reading and basic cooking skills.
The program was four sessions with two hours each. By participating in the class children improved 83 percent in abilities to choose nutritious food by dietary guidelines and 53 percent showed improvement in proper food safe handling techniques. By discussing the importance of physical activity 83 percent improved on their physical activity.
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