Monday, March 28, 2016
Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon and Mercy Foundation have recently teamed up to tackle childhood obesity with a cooking and nutrition program, Kids in the Kitchen, at Roseburg middle schools.
With grant funding provided by Regence, Mercy Foundation’s Healthy Kids Outreach Program (HKOP) is partnering with OSU Extensions’ SNAP Ed program to offer Kids in the Kitchen classes for students in grades six through eight at Fremont and Jo Lane.
Kids in the Kitchen fills a much needed gap in helping educate students about preparing nutritious foods that provide a foundation for a healthy and active lifestyle. The new program compliments other educational opportunities offered by Mercy Foundation’s HKOP and OSU Extension about healthy habits, including proper hand hygiene for kindergardeners and the impact of tobacco on their bodies for high school students.
“Cooking has become somewhat of a lost art among many of our students,” says Trina Gwaltney, HKOP manager. “With our busy lifestyles and often both parents working, kids don’t always have the opportunity to learn how to cook and prepare healthy foods at home.”
“Learning about nutrition and cooking, especially at an early age, is a fundamental building block of health,” said Scott Burton, Regence’s Director of Community and Business Relations. “Kids in the Kitchen is a great example of community partners recognizing a clear need and coming together to solve a growing yet entirely preventable problem in childhood obesity.”
Students ages 13-15 who sign up for the classes spend eight weeks learning to prepare simple, healthy foods that they can make for themselves and their family members at home. They also learn good food safety practices. Kids in the Kitchen lessons are based upon cognitive, physical, and social/emotional developmental milestones of this age group and include the following hour-long lessons:
Kitchen Sense
Eating the five food groups
Choose whole grains
I’ll eat these veggies
Fantastic fruits
Go lean with protein
Got milk?
Meals with appeal
“While there are many factors in why childhood obesity is on the rise, we are very excited that Regence and Mercy are working together to collaborate on a school-based educational program that offers kids hands on learning,” states Foundation president Lisa Platt “You could say, we’ve ‘cooked up a local solution.’”
“We are very excited that our pilot groups have both graduated, noted Gwaltney, “and our HKOP team and SNAP teams are ready to roll out wave 2!”
For more information about Kids in the Kitchen, please contact Mercy Foundation at 541-677-4818, or Regence at 503.525.6664.
