HIGH POINT, N.C., Nov. 12, 2015 – High Point University students teamed up with the Greater High Point Food Alliance to hold a Food Education Night for children and their parents on Nov. 11 at the Carl Chavis YMCA. The evening covered many topics in nutrition such as how to read a food label, healthy recipes and a cooking demonstration with tastings of fresh green beans and other nutritious food items.
“Food education is a great thing,” said Bill McKenzie, executive team member for the Greater High Point Food Alliance. “Our main goal is to increase the education piece of the hunger challenges that we face as a city so that more kids and parents can understand that eating healthy is not always more expensive and the benefits of knowing what you are eating and why you are eating it is important.”
“This is a great event for the children at the YMCA and their parents to get information on nutrition and easy tips to implement into one’s life,” says Rosie Tarara, instructor of health education in the School of Education at HPU, who organized the event.
The HPU students are currently enrolled in the Nutrition and Healthy Living service learning course at HPU and dedicated a semester to educating children at the Carl Chavis YMCA childcare center about healthy living. Every week, HPU students would creatively teach the children how to make healthy choices. The Food Education Night was an end of the semester celebration for the children and their parents.
“I have learned that water, fruits and vegetables are good for me so I am going to start eating more of that,” said community member Brittany Johnson. “I also learned what foods have a lot of sugar in them and what I should avoid eating.”
“It makes all of the difference to take what you are learning in class and actually be able to implement that with these children,” said HPU student Jasmine Williams. “The first couple of weeks that we worked with these children, some didn’t know the difference between a fruit and vegetable. It is great to see how far they have come with food education. In the long run, we think this will make a big difference for the entire family, not just the children that we have been working with throughout the semester.”