NEW YORK—More than 100 pre-K and 1st graders at P.S 197 in Harlem’s East Side got excited about kale, carrots and cranberries on Tuesday as they learned to prepare healthy Thanksgiving side dishes with gourmet chefs from the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts.
Donning chef hats and white doctor’s coats, the neighborhood’s next generation of doctors, chefs and nutritionists are the lucky guinea pigs in the pilot program ‘Project Aspire,’ an ongoing public health initiative spearheaded by the Children’s Health Education Foundation at Touro College.
Project Aspire brings real-life, interactive health education lessons and demonstrations into schools to encourage students to lead healthy lifestyles and to explore health careers, including becoming doctors.
“One of the motives of the program is to reach kids that haven’t been well represented ethnically as health professionals. There are also higher health risks in their communities, so through this program more kids will grow up thinking about healthy living but also be inspired to work as doctors in their own community to help change things,” said Stephen Phillips, Executive Director of Project Aspire.
“When I grow up I want to be a doctor, because then I can help the homeless,” explained Miesha Corber, 6. “My little cousin died from being sick. He was at the playground and he threw up and fell in the water, and then he got sick.”
It was unclear exactly what was wrong with Meisha’s cousin, but it was clear that she was making a strong connection between healthy eating and health in general through the class.
At Tuesday’s annual Thanksgiving lesson, the students learned about healthy nutrition and recipes that they can share with their families as they prepare for Thanksgiving.
They were joined by collaborating partner Annemarie Colbin, Founder of the Natural Gourmet Institute and award-winning leader in the field of natural health.
“Her (Colbin) chefs learn about healthy cooking but also about education, that’s why we partnered with them,” said Phillips.
The chef’s lesson plan included introducing the children to a variety of fresh vegetables and fruit, showing how they can be made into healthy meals, using original recipes from the Natural Gourment Insitute, and explaining in their own inspirational way why they are good for your body.
“I believe this is the foundation of good health and will help prevent health problems like the rampant diabetes. I like to motivate them. Kids like to be strong and smart, so I tell them how the food does that,” said Ela Guidon as she prepared the table for the next class of children to come in. “That girl was eating kale-raw kale! Then all the kids wanted to eat it! I really believe in this program.”
The pre-kindergarten children, the four and five year olds looked positively excited about tasting and smelling the fresh vegetables. Of course some of them tasted “yucky” but then they tasted the cooked version and were instant converts.
“Sweet potato is my favorite,” said C.J, a 5-year-old-boy at chef Guidon’s table.
“I like carrots. We’re wearing doctor’s coats!” said Destiny Hardy, 5, also at Guidon’s table.
A poll conducted at Touro’s medical school in Harlem showed that 50% of the students got interested in becoming doctors in elementary school.
“We began to realize that to get kids interested in health we had to start early,” said Phillips.
Assistant principle at P.S. 197, Paulette Johnson, is very pleased to have her students be part of this developing project.
“It’s helping the children with a lot of things, like their self esteem and motivation, many aspire to be doctors. Their learning new vocabulary, health, a lot of positive things,” said Johnson. “They really love it. We have no discipline problems when they come, they’re really attentive.”
The children may be learning healthy eating habits, but what happens when they go home? The program has that covered as well. They send the children home with a ‘magnet system’ for the fridge that includes the food group pyramid, and step-by-step recipes to follow. The children are expected to go home and teach their parents what they learned and let them know they want to eat healthy and get more exercise. These measures are part of Project Aspire’s follow up program, ‘Stick with It,’
“The idea behind the Stick with It program, is that we want it to be like The Great Smoke Out of the 70’s, where kids went home, they’d learned smoking was bad and they told mom and dad not to smoke, that it causes respiratory problems, and that stopped a lot of smoking in the 70’s,” explained Timothy Bellavia, Stick with It coordinator.
They also plan to have parents come in for workshops to make sure that after the children have learned healthy habits, the parents understand the same concepts.
Faculty and medical students from Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine Faculty visit schools and teach students from pre-kindergarten through high school about nutrition, hygiene and good health habits
Project Aspire has made a 12 year commitment to P.S. 197 and its students to keep up the program and see them through to college, with hopes of having some of them continue on, and study at Touro’s medical college in Harlem. Only two years old, some of the aspects of the course are still in the development stage, such as the ‘Motion is the Potion’ which promotes exercise and alternatives to unhealthy habits like video games and T.V.
Results of a 2003 survey of New York City children ages 6 to 11 found that almost 50% of the children are overweight or obese, according to Project Aspire’s website.
