What's New
"Rethink Your Drink" at Golden Hills Elementary School
March was National Nutrition Month, which was a prefect time for students at Golden Hills Elementary School in Oroville to learn about how sugary beverages affect their health. The "Rethink Your Drink" Celebration Fair was a fun-filled day for 4th & 5th grade students to learn about the benefits of drinking healthy beverages, such as water and 100% fruit juice. The students made smoothies using a human-powered blender bike, practiced yoga poses, tasted flavored water, discovered how much sugar is in various drinks, and much more!
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Fruit & Veggie Bunch Performances
Coming Soon!
Treats for Troops
Over 1500 pounds of Halloween candy have been donated to the Red Cross by thousands of students participating in the Treats for Troops program. Students from over 30 schools gave up their much prized candy to show their support for our troops overseas. This is the fourth year treats for troops has been conducted and there continues to be tremendous support from teachers who promote the program. Many students comment that they feel good about donating some of their candy knowing how much the soldiers like getting something from home.
Article from the Chico Enterprise Record:
Tons of candy for the troops
Chico Enterprise-Record
11/05/2009
Tom Matheson, volunteer for the American Red Cross, and Kristin Gruneisen with the Sierra Cascade Nutrition and Activity Consortium, load up bags of Halloween candy Tuesday donated by students from some 30 area schools to the Treats for Troops program. "The kids can still enjoy their candy, this is just a small treat from the students," explained Gruneisen. "The troops really appeciate it. The students include notes and cards of appreciation with the candy, and the troops use it as peace offereings." The spare candy is also used a packing material, she said. This is the fourth year for the candy donations, organized by the consortium.
(Ty Barbour/Staff Photo From Chico ER) |
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Culturally Sensitive Nutrition Education for the Hmong in Butte County
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Sierra Cascade Nutrition and Activity Consortium (SCNAC) along with the Department of Health and Community Services (HCSV) held their annual fall health fair at the Hmong Festival at the Silver Dollar Fairground in September. The festival is a time for the Hmong community in Butte County to socialized, court, eat, dance and compete in various traditional and Americanized sports.
Students from the Department in Health and Community Services and Professor Bow Lee (also a Health Education Specialist in the SCNAC program) developed health stations tailored towards the Hmong. This year stations includes consumption of a variety of fruits and vegetables, high-sugar food and its damages on dental health, physical activity, stretching, and comparison of no-sugar drinks vs. high-sugar drinks. In addition, healthy food testing such as watermelon, broccoli, grapes, cherry tomatoes, jicama, carrot, dried fruits, and favored water was given out to promote healthy food choices.
SCNAC and HSCV will be hosting their spring health fair in collaboration with Leaders for a Lifetime. For more information on this upcoming event, please contact Bow Lee at blee@csuchico.edu or 530-898-5675.
Summertime Learning Fun with SCNAC
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Dominik, a community nutrition assistant, makes kids some green smoothies and helps break the barrier of eating vegetables! Click here to watch the video. |
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Blender Bike
Students at McManus Elementary learned about why fruits and vegetables are great fuel for their body, the importance of daily activity, and then powered the Blender Bike to make their own healthy snack, a smoothie. "I think this is the best smoothie ever since I blended it myself. I didn't know I was that strong." Click here to watch the Blender Bike in action!Nutrition in the Park
Nutrition in the Park is uniquely designed to serve the Hmong residents in Chico, specifically in the Chapmantown area. This innovative summer program was developed to promoted healthy lifestyles for Hmong children and their families. The program activities are held at 1010 Cleveland (a house donated by a resident to serve as a community center for the area) and at the East 20th Community Park (next to Chapman Elementary School).
This program provides free nutrition lesson/activity, physical activity, dance classes, cooking classes, and gardening courses. The materials are tailored to meet the cultural and literacy needs of the Hmong community in Butte County. Though the program is highly Hmong-based, non-Hmong children and their families are encouraged to participate as well.
The program is held on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for 8 weeks in the summer, between 5pm-9pm.
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Leaders for a Lifetime
Leaders for a Lifetime is a youth development program offered through the CSU, Chico Health and Community Services Department. Its mission is to provide underserved youth in grades nine through twelve with an opportunity to develop leadership skills through health education community outreach service. The youth make a year long commitment to the program and participate in projects that serve the full range of community members from young mothers and their babies to the elderly. Youth are encouraged to participate every year of their high school career.
The major focus of all the programming created by the youth is nutrition, fitness and obesity reduction related. Enhancing the nutritional and fitness status of the Hmong community is a special emphasis. The youth address the specific objectives of the program (i.e. increasing the daily consumption pf fruits, vegetables, and whole grains; increasing daily physical activity levels; and decreasing obesity) through creating learning centers at health fairs, cultural events and area classrooms, teaching fitness through dance; leading fitness training and challenge events, assisting in area health, nutrition and fitness events; creating dramatic and dance performanes to education about nutrition and fitness.
Leaders for a Lifetime is funded through CSU, Chico Health and Community Services Department, CSU, Chico College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, the Sierra Cascade Nutrition and Activity Consortium and the group's fund raising efforts.
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Common Vision Visit
Common Vision Goals:
- Share messages of cooperation, communication, respect, health, community, positivity and earth stewardship with schools and communities.
- Develop working relationships with teachers, administrators, and community members to integrate sustainability and nutrition into the learning and landscape of local youth.
Fruit Tree Tour:
In the last five years, the Fruit Tree Tour Program has directly impacted 40,000 students, transformed over 100 urban schools and community centers into abundant orchards and planted over 3,000 fruit trees. 27 eco-educators and performing artists donate 4 months of their lives to travel in the world's largest veggie-oil-powered caravan to plant trees, play drums, dance, perform, and write eco-rhymes with urban youth and adults across California.
Butte County Visit:
From March 27th through April 1st the Fruit Tree Tour came to Butte County. They stopped at five locations:
- The Chico Chapman Neighborhood (18 trees)
- CHIP Housing Development in Thermalito (26 Trees)
- Chico Country Day School (23 trees)
- Paradise Intermediate School (11 trees)
- Biggs Elementary School (25 trees)
For more information please contact: Wendy (530) 415-0415
Common Vision has already started their trek from San Diego up to Chico. To see pictures and videos go to: www.commonvision.org. To read the article published in Community Seeds click here.
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Nonnie Korten Awarded to SCNAC!
This award is presented each year to a Network-funded contractor that has exhibited outstanding work to improve nutrition and physical activity for low-income children and adolescents in California.
Established in 2005 in honor of the late Nonnie Korten, the award reflects Nonnie’s vision, innovation, and passion. Nonnie was a tireless promoter of meaningful experiences for children that promoted deep thinking and thoughtful reflection. She wanted every child to realize their fullest potential not just as students, but as passionate, caring, healthy and informed human beings.
The Nonnie Korten Champion for Children Award will be presented to the Network-funded contractor that best portrays the following characteristics:
- Successfully and creatively implements a Network program that motivates and empowers food stamp eligible children and/or adolescents to increase consumption and enjoyment of a variety of colorful fruits and vegetables and to engage in physical activity every day.
- Clearly demonstrates effective strategies for bringing about healthy change by working at multiple levels of the social ecological model
- Actively and generously shares these ideas and resources with other Network-funded projects.
This year’s recipient is Chico Research Foundation - SCNAC and was recognized at an award ceremony to be held in conjunction with the Network Annual Conference March 4-5, 2009 at the Sacramento Convention Center.
Click here for the Chico State announcement.
