Richelieu Valley CHSSN Healthy Heritage Project

   

     Richelieu Valley Regionalized CLC

This past school year 140 Students from Cedar Street Elementary School in Beloeil, Quebec, and 185 students from Mountainview School in Otterburn Park had the opportunity to participate in numerous nutrition activities during the months of April and May. These are two of five elementary schools that are being incorporated into a new regionalized CLC model for enhanced sustainability being explored by the RVCLC at  Riverside School Board.

Activities were decided upon by a 5 member committee that consisted of two Principals, 2 Health and Social Services Staff and the RVCLC Coordinator.  Activities were delivered with the help of 2 Principals, RVCLC Coordinator, 2 Health and Social Services workers, Teachers and parental volunteers.  The goal was to influence students to understand the impacts of their food choices and the importance of eating healthier. This was also linked to broader goals of community engagement and service.

Students first attended workshops to learn about healthy food groups, how to read a nutrition label and healthy snack eating. Students at the workshops had a chance to create and eat their healthy snack ideas selecting from items such as honey melon, alfalfa sprouts, tomatoes, mandarins, cucumbers, strawberries, lettuce and blueberries.  The alfalfa sprouts that the students ate in their fruit/veggie salads were germinated and grown by them over the course of 8 days.

Grade 5/6 students from Mountainview organized a community thank-you lunch! They prepared and served meals to senior citizens from local community organizations that had partnered with the school on other activities over the year, i.e. the senior reading buddies.

The program ran a number of weeks and was a great success thanks to amazing partners who collaborated to help every step of the way. A Nurse and Social Worker from the CSSS Richelieu-Yamaska helped teachers and administrators throughout the process along with the RVCLC Coordinator and  parent volunteers and a helpful student volunteer from Dawson College.

Thanks to the efforts of these people all activities were a great success teaching students and the community how to eat healthy and simply, while having fun and being of service to their elders!

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