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NEWS RELEASES - 2007
Healthy Hearts – Healthy Minds
(Guelph, ON – January 24, 2008) Childhood obesity is becoming a major concern.
That’s why the Ontario Student Nutrition Program and the Ontario Greenhouse
Vegetable Growers (OGVG) have teamed up to create a pilot school nutrition
program called Healthy Hearts, Healthy Minds.
The project, funded in part by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada through the
Agricultural Adaptation Council’s CanAdvance program, offers a selection of
fresh fruits and vegetables to elementary school children as snacks, giving them
a midday nutritional boost – one that’s healthier than the high sugar or
high-sodium snacks that were typically found in vending machines before the
Ontario government banned them in elementary schools in 2004. In many cases, the
snacks were produced by Ontario greenhouse vegetable farmers.
The initial pilot project, which ran in 10 schools in Windsor-Essex and six in
Toronto, delivered fresh washed and sliced greenhouse produce including
everything from apples, celery, cranberries and cherry tomatoes, and
mini-cucumbers. Teachers then found it easy to distribute the snacks prior to
recess.
“The pilot project was especially well-suited to elementary schools because it
gets young children eating fruits and vegetables regularly,” says Stephanie
Segave, regional co-ordinator for Windsor-Essex’s Ontario Student Nutrition
Program. “And that makes them more likely to develop good nutritional habits as
they grow up,” she says.
A 2004 Report by the Chief Medical Officer of Health Report showed that in 2003,
almost one out of every two adults in Ontario was overweight or obese. Between
1981 and 1996, the number of obese children in Canada between the ages of seven
and 13 tripled. This is contributing to a dramatic rise in illnesses such as
type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, hypertension and some cancers.
“Primary schools are a great place to start because studies have found that we
can change eating patterns more easily to include nutritious food at a young
age,” says Bette Jean Crews, chair of the Agricultural Adaptation Council.
“What’s more, the classroom atmosphere is ideal for serving nutritious foods.
Children who may be reluctant to eat healthy snacks are influenced positively
when they see their classmates enjoying them.”
The program in Windsor-Essex is now self-sustaining, but the question now arises
as to how to develop this program on a provincial basis, working with entire
school boards as opposed to single schools.
The first step towards a provincial program was taken this spring when
approximately 50 schools and 13,000 children from across the London Catholic
School Board took part.
Segave agrees that the “kids loved it”. We rotated products in order to expose
the kids to a variety of fruits and vegetables but also had some ‘wild card
days’. At some schools, the principals really got into the action and challenged
the kids to eat some of the more obscure vegetables including raw asparagus!”
What’s up next for the program? Surveys conducted by researchers at the
University of Western Ontario and University of Waterloo are currently being
compiled with the results due this fall. It is anticipated that the results will
help to develop two delivery models, one for a central (urban) system and one
for rural areas.
This project is funded in part through the Victorian Order of Nurses, the
Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers, the Ontario Produce Marketing Association,
A. Lassonde Inc. (Oasis Classic Juices) and $110,000 was provided by Agriculture
and Agri-Food Canada through the Agricultural Adaptation Council’s CanAdvance
program.
The Agricultural Adaptation Council is a non-profit, grass roots coalition of 71
agricultural, agribusiness and rural organizations dedicated to providing
financial resources to help Ontario’s agriculture and agri-food industry remain
profitable, grow and maintain its economic strength.
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For more information:
Nadine Armstrong
Communications Manager
Agricultural Adaptation Council
Ph: 519-822-7554
E-mail: narmstrong@adaptcouncil.org
Website: www.adaptcouncil.org
