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Helping Children CATCH Good Nutrition


Earlier this year, Kim Gambardella wrote about her children’s 5-2-1-0 Let’s Go! program in Maine. It got me thinking about some of the programs my own community’s schools might be using to bring more attention to childhood obesity and encouraging the children in our schools here in Massachusetts to eat healthier and be more active. Ironically, around the same time that I was exploring this, I found out that my middle daughter’s preschool was engaging in the CATCH program (Coordinated Approach To Children’s Health) and having the children become very involved.

 

The CATCH program’s main incentive is to bring schools, families, and communities together to teach children the tenets of health for a lifetime. Exactly what I was looking for! When I dropped my daughter off the next week, this photo was on the wall outside of their classroom:
  


sign at school
 


The teachers had spent time looking at what the 4- and 5-year-olds considered to be “Go!” foods (i.e., healthy foods) and “Whoa!” foods (i.e., the junky foods they should stay away from). I thought this was a clever and creative way to have the children thinking about foods that they consume in their everyday lives, how to determine which column they can classify the food, and how to consume more “Go” foods, much the same way I use the HMR Calorie Guide to coach my clients to eat more 1s, 2s and 3s.

Also on tap was a visit from Jared Fogle, the “celebrity” spokesperson from Subway. The children of course had no idea who this celebrity was but had fun with him nonetheless.

However, the best part of what this program offered was a hands-on approach to learning the fundamentals of gardening and eating locally, to foster a love of produce and how growing your own food can result in an abundance of delicious and healthy “Go” foods. And as a result of the CATCH program, our preschool set up a fundraiser with the entire school and community to raise funds to create an outside garden for the children to spend time during the year planting and growing their own food (and hopefully cultivating a lifelong love of veggies and fruits at the same time). As of this blog posting, they have raised over 80% of what they need to get the garden started next year.

I am thrilled that an early learning center aimed at kids as young as 3 years old will continue to be exposed to a great resource like the CATCH program. Now, if I can only get my 4-year-old to stop telling me that my HMR Chocolate 70 Plus mousse is a “whoa” food, I’ll be all set!

 

 

by jennyb on 07/11/2012 | Share Story With a Friend

tags: motivation, kids, mommy blog, nutrition

About the Author

jennyb

Jenny has been a health educator at HMR since 2002, helping patients build healthier lifestyles and lose weight. She has 3 little girls at home and uses all the skills she’s learned at HMR to be a role model to them while at the same time making living a healthy lifestyle lots of fun!

Comments (7) Post a comment
Great post Jenny - There are so many great programs in many school systems to support kids being more active and learning about healthy eating. Thanks for sharing what a local pre-school is doing. !HMR shakes (or pudding) are just like a low fat dairy. I assume that low fat or fat free milk is a "Go Food" and not a "Whoa food". Tell you son the pudding has the same nutrition as a glass of milk he drinks to keep his bones strong!
by ChristineWeithman on 07/16/2012
great way to start them young :) Never too early to learn about healthy eating!
by LeaLea on 07/13/2012
What a great program! It's such a positive example of your daughter's school being a part of the solution. thanks for sharing this, Jenny!
by SandiBraithwaite on 07/13/2012
love this site it is just what I need to get me back in the box and stay there!!!!!
by choclover on 07/12/2012
I love this idea! I'm going to be running some groups this year at school (primarily 5th grade) as we are seeing an increase in students with health-related issues as a direct result of them being very overweight. Your blog is very inspirational!
by AngelaNJ on 07/11/2012
This is wonderful...I love the hands-on approach of letting the kids get the satisfaction of growing their own fruits and vegetables. Glad to see such a focus of nutrition in local schools here in MA!
by lejohnso87 on 07/11/2012
I love how simple this is - separating the foods into columns to make it easy for kids to make good choices! So glad these kids are getting a head start to being healthy!
by MegN09 on 07/11/2012