{"id":8074,"date":"2020-03-03T22:37:16","date_gmt":"2020-03-03T22:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cucsj.org\/?p=8074"},"modified":"2020-03-03T22:37:16","modified_gmt":"2020-03-03T22:37:16","slug":"teaching-children-healthier-options-with-cooking-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cucsj.org\/es\/2020\/03\/03\/teaching-children-healthier-options-with-cooking-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching Children Healthier Options with Cooking Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

To combat the rising rates of childhood\nobesity in the U.S., local elementary students take part in CommUniverCity\u2019s\nCooking Matters program. Cooking Matters is dedicated to teaching the\nimportance of nutrition and living a healthy lifestyle to San Jose\u2019s K-6th\nyouth. Through a span of 6 weeks, nutrition lessons vary across a wide array of\ntopics. Notable lessons include \u201cMyPlate\u201d, \u201cReading a Nutrient Label\u201d, \u201cEating\nIn vs. Eating Out\u201d and many more. Additionally, each workshop ends with a\nbrief, interactive cooking tutorial of a nutritious snack or meal. This portion\nof the workshops is designed to give the children a taste of the foods they are\nlearning about. Cooking Matters\u2019 main focus is to introduce its participants to\nhealthy habits at the age at which they are the most impressionable. Doing so\nplants the seeds of awareness in their minds so, as they grow, they can\nrecognize healthy food options around them; be it the grocery store, a\nrestaurant or in their own homes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cooking Matters brings together SJSU student\ninterns and local elementary school students. The SJSU student interns are the\nbrains behind the whole program, as they are the ones who come up with the\ninformative and fun lessons. SJSU intern Adrian Gaspar described the experience\nas, \u201cOut of his comfort zone, but in a good way,\u201d as he had never taught before\njoining the Cooking Matters team. The interns pair their lessons with a\ncorresponding snack or meal. In the last couple of semesters, our participants\nhave enjoyed foods like fruit smoothies, whole grain pancakes, and chicken and\nvegetable rice bowls. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since many of our young participants come from\nlow income backgrounds, one of the main goals of the Cooking Matters program is\nto have them enjoy and experience new, healthier foods they may not have\nregular access to. Over the past year, we have had at least one student try a\nnew fruit or vegetable each semester. In our \u201cSources of Protein\/Chicken Taco\u201d\nlesson in Fall 2019, a 5th grade student from Lowell Elementary shared that she\nhad never had a taco, or any other Hispanic food, before. At the end of that\nlesson, she told interns that she wanted to tell her parents that they need to\ntry more Mexican dishes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n