COVID19 Gave Us Lemons, We Made Lemonade

According to the Center for Disease Control, nutrition education is a vital part of comprehensive health education and empowers children with knowledge and skills to make healthy food and beverage choices. Healthy eating habits are more likely to stay with you if you learn them as a child. Healthy eating habits have many benefits for children, helping to stabilize their energy, improve their mind, even out their mood and help to maintain a healthy weight. In the United States students receive less than the 8 hours of required nutrition education each school year. When the COVID 19 Pandemic closed the schools the nutrition education may have ended.

In an effort to keep the children learning about nutrition and MyPlate the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education Assistant in Anderson County KY made a series of Videos that could be shared through FaceBook and made available for families and children to view. MP Saurus and his friends were used to teach the food groups with MyPlate and to recognize where each food fit on the plate. The benefits from the different foods as well as from physical activity were also part of each lesson. These videos were first presented on the  @KYSUNutrition and through the Anderson County Nutrition Group they were then shared to Bluegrass Community Head Start and with the Anderson County Schools Family Resource and Youth Services. The videos were viewed an average of 330 times. In addition to the video for each food group, another video was developed at the request of Sparrow Early Childhood Center. “MP Makes a Healthy Snack” was used to coincide with a program that was being provided by the center.

Having the opportunity to continue nutrition education was important and needed. A fun and interesting approach to learning helped provide knowledge needed for the children to make healthy choices that will improve their life. The “new normal” might have changed how we teach but it did not stop the learning.