Feeling better and staying well

• Helping parents make healthful choices: With the goal of helping to reduce childhood obesity, UC ANR Cooperative Extension funded the Shaping Healthy Choices Program, a school-based program with five components: 1) nutrition education and promotion, 2) family and community partnerships, 3) integration of regional agriculture, 4) foods available on the school campus and 5) school wellness policies. Participants achieved desirable decreases in body mass index.
  
  
• Teaching kids about nutrition: UC’s 4-H Youth Development Program’s Communities, Youth, and Families at Risk project engages K-12 youth in 4-H Healthy Living programming. The objective of the programming is to increase knowledge and create behavior change related to nutrition, cooking, gardening, physical activity and agriculture literacy.

There are many aspects and positive outcomes of teaching students about their food system. Anything can be taught in a garden; math, science, literature, art, music, the lessons are endless. We have found that children who grow their own vegetable are more likely to eat a healthier diet as well as have a better understanding of where their food comes from.

— Terry Spezzano 
UC ANR county director, Stanislaus County
Nutrition, Family and Consumer Science Advisor