Growing Sustainably: Cooking Matters
To encourage healthy eating habits, the challenge is to make nutritious choices appealing. 25% of middle and high school students in Santa Clara County are overweight or obese. 2016 data from the County of Santa Clara shows that only 8% of adults in CommUniverCity’s service area eat three or more servings of fruit and vegetables a day. The goal of Cooking Matters is to expose students at a young age to healthy food choices and alternatives with the hope that students will incorporate the foods and teaching in their own life styles.
SJSU student interns lead six weeks of interactive nutrition lessons, as well as brief cooking activities, at Horace Mann and
Lowell Elementary Schools. The lessons consist of topics such as “Eating a Rainbow,” nutirtion word searches, coloring pictures of fruit, reading nutrition labels and playing games like Food Jeopardy to put their new knowledge to the test. Many children are exposed to new nutrition facts, for example, they learned that food with whole grains helps to fight heart diseases and diabetes, and about the nutritional differences between red meat and white meat. Other lessons focus on the importance of cleanliness and hygiene in the kitchen and while eating.
Project Impacts
Students Engaged
Residents Engaged
Hours of Student Service
Value
Sponsors
