With childhood obesity becoming a major concern among officials across the country, one West Windsor retailer is holding monthly classes for kids to make healthy eating fun.
Whole Foods Market in the Windsor Green shopping center on Route 1 is holding a program titled, “Bag Your Kids a Healthy Snack” on Saturday, March 19, at noon. The class, conducted by in-store chef Sue Gordon, is held in Whole Foods’ in-store cooking classroom at noon. The fee is $15 and registration is required.
“The classes help give people ideas on how to use different foods and how to incorporate the products we sell into their meals,” says Melissa McDermott, the store’s marketing specialist. Once or twice a month, the store holds classes focusing on teaching kids how to eat healthy.
The March 19 program, for example, will present three different recipes for snacks that can be made using a plastic zip-lock bags.
“One of the snacks is a fruit smoothie,” says McDermott. “The kids will take yogurt, fruit, and toppings, put the ingredients into the zip-lock bag and then smash it up. Then they’ll take what they made and squeeze it into a cup.”
The other recipes to be taught are taco bags (using taco toppings, and corn chips), and nutty citrus salads (using ingredients like oranges, grapefruits, coconuts, pumpkin seeds and cashews).
The importance of healthy eating by children became an issue last year after a state study of 2,”393 sixth grade students found that while 60 percent of the children were of “normal” weight, 18 percent were classified as overweight, and 20 percent as obese.
In response several state legislators introduced bills that would prohibit the sale of foods deemed to be of minimal nutritional value, such as candy bars, hard candy, or chewing gum, to pupils at public elementary or middle schools.
“We try to promote healthy eating for kids,” says McDermott. “One way of trying to get through to kids is with the cooking classes. We put fruits and veggies in a fun atmosphere. It’s important to make it fun for them, and delicious.”
Meanwhile, the West Windsor-Plainsboro is also thinking about healthy diets for students. The school district started making small changes to its lunchtime offerings at the beginning of the school year to help encourage students to make healthy food choices.
In the elementary schools, the district started serving boxed salads with light dressings, eliminated whole milk and, and switched to baked potato chips. The district also offers two kinds of fresh fruit on a daily basis and has added whole wheat bread.
Bag Your Kids a Healthy Snack, Whole Foods Market, Windsor Green Shopping Center, West Windsor, 609-799-2919. Saturday, March 19, Noon. For a complete list of Whole Foods’ schedule of activities for adults and children can visit www.wholefoods.
com, and choose Princeton under the store locations heading.
