The Kids Eat Smart Foundation, along with the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Agriculture and the School Milk Foundation, partnered to bring the second annual Rooting for Health event to 14 schools across the island last week, including Smallwood Academy.
“We serve the whole school body, and try to incorporate some new, healthy foods to introduce the kids to those foods,” said Berdina Connolly, co-ordinator for the Kids East Smart Program at Smallwood Academy. “We come up with some creative ways to make the breakfast to teach the kids how to eat healthy, and the importance of eating a healthy breakfast.”
Friday’s volunteers, who were members of the Salvation Army Church in Gambo, looked to a classic breakfast choice made popular by a world famous fast-food chain.
However, because the school focuses on healthy eating, the volunteers added their own special touch to the breakfast menu.
“Today we made our version of the Egg McMuffin, so we tried to make a healthy version of that,” said Ms. Connolly. “This was the first year we were asked to incorporate eggs into our menu. We had some English muffins, eggs and cheese, and blueberries and yogurt, along with our regular menu of fruit, toast, juice and white and chocolate milk.”
Nita Abbott, who represented LA Farms, donated the blueberries and eggs. Unfortunately, Ms. Abbott couldn’t stick around for the entire morning, as she had to leave early because of family reasons.
She was also at the school last year for the inaugural event, showing the students that agriculture is alive and well in the province.
“She’s been a part of the drive to introduce healthy foods to the children. Last year was the first year she came in and gave us some foods like blueberries,” said Ms. Connolly. “She showed the students how to plant plants last year and introduced them to the fact that agriculture is thriving in Newfoundland.”
The concept of eating healthy is well promoted in the Gambo school. Smallwood Academy’s breakfast program started in 1998 thanks to donations from the community. The Kids Eat Smart Program came on shortly after and offered to help out and extend the breakfast program from one day to three days, and then from three days to five days.
“We come up with some creative ways to make the breakfast to teach the kids how to eat healthy, and the importance of eating a healthy breakfast.” - Berdina Connolly
Currently about 50 volunteers, representing a number of different groups, serve breakfast each day.
Ms. Connolly said she thought long and hard about where the volunteers would come from when the breakfast program was extended to five days, so she decided to turn to the church community. Her call for help was quickly answered.
“Our Anglican ladies stood up and took over Mondays, our United Church ladies took over Tuesdays (they also took over the school’s Treat of the Week Program), the Catholic ladies and the people who started when the program began come in on Wednesdays, Community Health took over Thursdays, and the Salvation Army ladies come in on Fridays,” she said. “The RCMP contacted us and told us they would love to come along one day of the week, and they picked Fridays.”
Ms. Connolly said the support shown by the business community has been outstanding, adding local supermarket owners Rick and Lilly Brown have been supporting the breakfast program from the very beginning.
However, she did say there’s a misconception associated with the breakfast program, one she would like to clear up.
“Some people think the program is setup for the children who don’t eat breakfast at home, but I beg to differ. Some people say, you’re serving them breakfast, so that means Mom and Dad don’t have to, and you’re making lazy parents,” said Ms. Connolly. “That’s kind of a crazy thought because the breakfast program is much more than that. There’s a social aspect there, and our teachers will say once the kids get that social aspect out of the way and they’ve been well fed, they go back into the classroom ready to work.”
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