Snacks from the Garden

Snacks from the Garden

Richmond Regional High School CLC

Danielle Hamel

Richmond Regional High School has a beautiful community garden, which Math and Science teacher Danielle Hamel decided to incorporate into her lessons.

Secondary-one science students started seedlings in March and transplanted them in the garden outside before the end of the school year.  When the students came back after the summer, they harvested what they had planted.

 

Throughout the summer, Ms. Hamel, a local resident of the community collected the most abundant fruit and vegetables which included zucchini, black berries, strawberries, tomatoes and garlic and placed them in her freezer at home.

When October came, she was teaching proportions in her secondary-two math class and had the students double or triple recipes for smoothies, muffins and dips. The class then spent a period cooking and baking.  Surprisingly, for some students, it was their first experience and some found it quite a challenge, but most students enjoyed it.

Through an annual survey of students, it was discovered that the healthy eating habits of teenagers could be improved.  The genuine service the students provided was the promotion of healthy, locally grown food. 

Students were asked to make pamphlets that included the recipe, nutritional facts and fun facts about the fruits and vegetables. The class then shared the snacks with the students from the high school, the elementary school, the nursery school, the day care and two local senior homes. The class wanted to promote locally grown, healthy snacks as well as reaching out to our community, showing positive things that the teens are doing at the high school.

To read more about the project, click here.

St. John's Healthy Heritage Project

St John's CLC

St John’s Elementary students took part in a program entitled the “Lunch Club project”.  The workshop’s aim was to increase student, parent and community awareness of healthy lifestyle choices such as good nutrition and active living.  

The project was geared to help provide students with basic cooking skills and understanding of the importance of all four food groups by teaching them what ingredients to include and what to avoid.

Through the Lunch Club Project students realized that preparing their own lunches at school eating healthy can be fun. With the loving attention of the seniors group Lionnettes, and careful guidance of St. John’s School Nurse, a strong intergenerational dynamic could also be felt in the school, giving it all more of a family kitchen feel.

The project’s huge success was due to capable partnerships with Bouffe Pontiac who provided a free animator for the Nutrition workshops. Pontiac en Forme provided an animator that helped the children in preparing the lunches. The Lionnettes helped supervise the students as they prepared their lunches, St. John’s School Nurse who monitors their lunches and finally even the town Mayor participated in the activity and found the program “Remarkable”.

Since the start of the Lunch Club Project students are more aware of a nutritional diet and have a greater  variety of interesting recipes and healthy practices.

Check out an amazing recipe and activity book compiled for this project by.. Clicking Here.

Saint Lambert Healthy Heritage Project

Saint Lambert CLC

Students and families of the Saint Lambert area participated in a two-part workshop geared towards promoting the importance of healthy nutrition practices. An innovative aspect was that parents and students would be split into child-cooking and parent-nutritional info workshops and then brought back together near the end of the evening to integrate their learnings while parents enjoyed the outcome of the children’s workshop!

 

“We wanted to show our families that preparing healthy meals (together to strengthen their bonds as a family) does not need to be difficult.” - Natasha MacDonald, CLC Coordinator.

The first workshop entitled “Packing Healthy Lunches”, introduced students to healthy lunch alternatives, with a twist on the traditional tuna sandwich as well as introducing other healthy side alternatives such as sesame noodle salad and green salad.

The second workshop was entitled “How to Prepare Healthy Meals as a Family”. Students and their families were educated on healthy eating practices such as how to get full servings of all essential food groups.  This was followed by strategies for preparing simple yet interesting meals they can take home and prepare with their families.

Students prepared chicken breasts wrapped in pancetta with leeks, and chicken breasts with asparagus and tomatoes to take home and cook as a family. This workshop was successful in helping children understand nutrition and how to ensure they maintain a healthy diet, along with some exciting twists on traditional dishes.  But they also had the opportunity to bond with their parents creating a stronger sense of community. After the workshops students and their families left with their very own CLC Family Cookbook to continue the healthy trends learned with family.

 

The workshops were a huge success.

“You could literally see the excitement on the children’s' faces as they led their parents and grandparents into their cooking area, showing off all their hard work.  The enthusiasm and sense of empowerment was very strong.”

Everyone’s efforts showed in their dishes and parents left understanding the need for attention to food preparation with families, as noted in several parent comments:

“I noticed I need to pay more attention to labels before I buy.”

“I learned that simpler can be better, and to eat less processed foods.”

 “I'm re-inspired to eat properly again.”

Thanks goes to the diligent efforts of partners Sandra Power, Holistic Nutritional Consultant and Margaret Kassab of Simple Gourmet. Their efforts ensured that the workshops ran smoothly and effectively while providing students and their families with the know how to prepare healthy meals on their own. 

St Lambert compiled a great list of documents for this project, including yummy smoothie recipies, a Family Nutrition Workshop and handouts for Packing Healthy Lunches and Cooking with Kids. 

To access all these great resources click here!

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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Centennial Healthy Heritage Project

A new awareness campaign this year expanded the standard March Nutrition Month to a life-long campaign concept! It consisted of 5 projects: a food demonstration, Chopped, Tupperware, Nutrition & Mind Detox, and Smoothies. Of course everyone wants to encourage healthy eating habits, but we realized for true success we need to involve our whole community, not just students. The campaign began with the children but spread throughout the community not only educating the children but further strengthening the community bonds throughout.

First, March 18 there was a huge table set up in the student lounge, to display healthy andunusual options many were not aware of: dried figs, passion fruit, dragon fruit, papayas, mangos, hummus and peppers/celery/carrots, longans…etc. Students were able to take a variety of options to try, were given health guides, and were able to ask questions.

Shortly after, on May 29th, there was a Chopped Competition as seen on the Food Network where students and seniors formed teams to compete against each other with secret ingredients to form a healthy, creative, tasty and unique lunch that they can recreate at home or bring to school. Each team opened their baskets to reveal all the same ingredients inside and had a total of 30 minutes to create their meals, and judges sampled. They were judged on using all their ingredients, creativity, taste and teamwork. The senior community members were able to assist our students in preparation techniques, cooking and preparation ideas, and nutritional factors.

Tupperware was also invited to do a demonstration the same day and all the proceeds from sales went to the home economics department which is in dire need of funding.

Following the amazing Chopped competition the campaign pressed on and on May 27 a Nutritional Consultant and Mind Detox specialist was brought in who performed a culinary workshop for over 50 staff members. Afterward staff worked on quick and easy recipes and routines to incorporate in their daily lives in order to reduce the stressors that they face.

Finally on June 3rd the last event held in the form of a smoothie demonstration highlighting the importance of healthy morning meals by distributing over 400+ smoothies and over 200+ recipe cards for students and staff.

The campaign itself has been such a huge success. Thanks to their efforts enrollment in the home economics is higher than it has ever been! Thanks to partners: Catherine Lambert the CLSC Nurse who was the most involved partner throughout, Sandra Powers - Nutritional and Mind Detox Specialist, Lise Beaupre from Tupperware, 6 senior women from the community who want to return for more activities, Dora Prokosh: a retiree from Centennial, Arianne Wright: Family & Life Skill Department Coordinator, and Adonis: Food Retailer, and a few returning partners who assisted: Animator/Parent Annie Beauregard, Valerie Forde and Steven Carroll.

To find out more about Centennial Regional CLC and the other projects they have running please check out: www.facebook.com/Centennialclc

Nutrition - Making Healthy Snacks. - Growing our own fruits and Vegetables

Making Healthy Snacks - Growing our own fruits and vegetables
Nutrition

Parkdale Elementary

Maria Kanellopoulos, a Cycle 1 teacher at Parkdale CLC worked to develop a nutrition project integrated in French, Drama and Art. As students learned about proper nutrition they developed presentations and participated in the planting of a school garden  This project shows how even young students can play a role in promoting healthy communities.

Students walked to a nearby grocery store where they learned about the food groups through a hands-on experience by shopping for supplies needed for a Healthy Snack Day with their parents.  

Then students prepared healthy snacks which included, zucchini muffins, avocado-salsa dip and onion dip for the veggies and a tangy-sweet dip for the fruits. The students also prepared fruit and vegetable brochettes, fruit salad and veggie pita pizza.

According to Ms. Kanellopoulos “The students were inspired and gained a sense of responsibility, self-esteem, and ownership”. At the beginning of May, the students planted vegetables in class.

Using fabric markers, students colored their pizza ingredients on tee-shirts and performed the song, ''Je suis une pizza'', for their parents. Students shared their nutrition book created in class which included all their work.

Many pictures were taken throughout this process and the parents had the opportunity to see the whole process through a photo slide show.  Ms. Kanellopoulos wrote that “Needless to say, they learned so much through this experience and I also learned so much from my little grade 1's”.

Some of the greatest successes of the project included the "real" learning that took place and the sense of community that was created. Families were brought together.  A lesson learned by the teacher in charge was the importance of organization and having a team to work together to pull off this kind of project.

For more information about this project click here.

Stacey's Adventures in Chevery

Stacey's Adventures in Chevery

Netagamiou School

Marguerite Cox

In the small community of Chevery, on Quebec’s Lower North Shore, students in Ms. Cox’s Pre K, Kindergarten and Primary Cycle 1 class created a book about a baby emperor penguin plush toy named Stacey who came to the class looking for adventures. Each student took Stacey home, and took pictures of an adventure with their parents.

The creation of a student-authored book met a need in the community because there is a lack of local literary activities. There is no bookstore and the library is only open sporadically. Ms. Cox felt people need access to books for early-readers and the children need to realize the importance of books and become active in their community.

  
The book of adventures was written in the third person and publishing using blurb.ca.  The project was woven through English and Science and Technology competencies. 

Once completed, a copy of the book will remain in the Netagamiou School/Municipal Library and Centre régional de services aux bibliothèques publiques (C.R.S.B.P.) de la Côte-Nord. Ms. Cox and her students also made a community presentation at the local Salon des Livres in June 2013the classroom, and available for loan to all students in the school library and the Biblioteque Cote Nord. Ms. Cox and her students also made a community presentation at the local Salon des Livres in May 2013.

For more information on the project, click here.