JUST SAYIN’-Over the last five years, Michelle Obama has been able to bring ever greater awareness to the national community about just how essential it is to look after our own health and to start our youngsters on a positive nutritional path from birth.
As a result, just over the last five years (by following her lead), we are seeing the rate of diabetes and obesity reduced considerably. Since both maladies have a direct connection to heartdisease and stroke, we are beginning to see significant impact at reducing these illnesses as well.
Mrs. Obama, along with many other leaders in the food health arena, has urged our public school systems to provide healthy breakfast/nutrition/lunch for our children from pre-K through high school and to replace the offerings in on-site vending machines from foods high in fructose, other sugars, and fat to alternative choices that are attractive, healthy, and good to eat (such as fresh fruit and vegetables and other healthy snacks).
You have read in my earlier column about Farmer’s Fridge Vending Machines (which I hope will soon establish itself in Los Angeles) that answer, in part, these very concerns.
Furthermore, Chef Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution has been active in working with school districts, such as the LAUSD, to replace empty-calorie foods with ones that produce increased focus and greater energy (back in 2010, unfortunately, the myopic School Board did not have the prescience to work with him on what would have become a very effective program). I believe the School District is now beginning to see the light.
As a teacher, I used to see students buy 5 or 6 donuts at Nutrition and be bouncing off the walls by the end of the day or become so sleepy, they could not concentrate on their studies, so I very much welcome the new interest in healthy food options.
One response to this concern is the many schools that are now offering classes, fruit and vegetable horticulture gardens, and health faires to encourage staff, students, and family to look at food in a different way.
Sylmar High School has had such yearly faires for years, drawing hundreds of community members to the activities. Rain or shine, people have eagerly populated the grounds where various organizations had exhibits which offered lessons in good eating, distributed free fruit and vegetables, taught how to grow and prepare healthy foods at an inexpensive cost, exercise classes, presentations by a variety of community organizations as well as visits by local City and Neighborhood Councilmembers and State lawmakers. Each year this event has been a resounding success.
On May 1, 2014, from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., San Fernando High School is presenting its Health and Resource Fair using a slightly different format.
HealthCorps, founded by the famous Dr. Mehmet Oz, began a 2-year program on the campus that ended in 2013 but laid the foundation for the San Fernando High School Teen Clinic and the Youth Policy Institute (YPI) to take the lead in carrying out Oz’s mission “to implement an innovative in-school model that inspires teens to make healthier choices for themselves and their families.”
The SFHS faires are uniquely student-led, having received background through their various health-related on-campus academies. These young people, in addition to teaching the basics about health, also show the students (who in turn can educate their families) which school and neighborhood resources are available and where and how to contact them.
Although this year’s exhibition is offered only for the on-campus students, it is hoped that such faires will be open to the public-at-large in the near future.
Currently, a number of activist organizations are involved: Sahaja Mediation, Phoenix House Academy, Ambulatory Care Network, El Nido Family Source Center, Narconon Drug Prevention and Education, and many more.
You might want to think about getting your schools and communities to offer similar programs.
Just sayin’.
In the meantime, if you would like to be part of this faire by tabling an exhibit or would like more information in general, please see the contact information below. There is still time to reserve a table, but the event is just around the corner:
Site: SAN FERNANDO HIGH SCHOOL: 11133 O’Melveny Avenue, San Fernando 91340
● Vanessa Deleon, Health and Wellness Coordinator, Youth Policy Institute (YPI)
Work: 818-837-8732; cell: 562-658-6317; [email protected]
● Paola Aguilar, Health Educator, Northeast Valley Health Corporation
Work: 818-365-7517 ext. 50808; [email protected]
(Rosemary Jenkins is a Democratic activist and chair of the Northeast Valley Green Alliance. Jenkins has written Leticia in Her Wedding Dress and Other Poems, A Quick-and-Easy Reference to Correct Grammar and Composition and Vignettes for Understanding Literary and Related Concepts. She also writes for CityWatch.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 12 Issue 31
Pub: Apr 15, 2014
