Mayor Holden, LSU AgCenter Teach Students About Healthy Eating on Food Day
- November 8, 2011
Monday, October 24, was National Food Day, and the Louisiana State University (LSU) AgCenter and Mayor-President Melvin “Kip” Holden’s Healthy Baton Rouge Initiative joined forces on that day to teach elementary students how to eat healthier and safer.
In honor of Food Day, students from six elementary schools also conducted a food drive that benefited the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank, which is experiencing one of its greatest food shortages since Hurricane Katrina. As part of the program, Westdale Heights Academic Magnet School hosted a Body Walk exhibit that same day to teach elementary students how different types of food affect the human body. An LSU AgCenter volunteer (pictured, right) reviewed nutrition with those students.
The Body Walk exhibit is s 35-foot-by-45-foot walk-through display representing the human body. As students walk through the exhibit, they stop at designated learning stations to explore the stomach, small intestines, heart, lungs, bones, skin and brains, and they learn about how different foods affect each organ. The hands-on exhibit teaches the students about human nutrition, physiology and the importance of healthy lifestyle behaviors.
The Body Walk exhibit is a part of the Smart Bodies Program, which is collaboration between the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana Foundation and the LSU AgCenter. The Smart Bodies program, a Louisiana youth program for healthy bodies and active minds, is a comprehensive health program that provides nutrition education and promotes increased physical activity.
Six of the schools participating in the Smart Bodies and Smart Choices programs conducted healthy food drives to honor Food Day. The six participating schools included Bernard Terrace Elementary, Progress Elementary, Villa del Rey Elementary and Westdale Heights Academic Magnet School.
For more information on Food Day, please visit www.FoodDay.org ( http://www.foodday.org/ ). Mayor Holden’s Healthy Baton Rouge Initiative is part of a national campaign launched in the spring of 2004 by the U.S. Conference of Mayors in response to the nation's growing obesity epidemic and its relationship to chronic diseases and certain types of cancers. Because chronic diseases — such as diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease — and obesity often can be prevented or alleviated through regular exercise and healthy eating, the Healthy Cities Campaign focuses on ways that mayors can help youngsters make healthier choices.
Principal Brister in Washington, D.C., to Accept McKinley Middle School’s Second Blue Ribbon Award
On Tuesday, November 13, 2012, Principal Herman Brister (pictured, left) and the school’s Teacher of the Year, Lynn Williamson (right), were in Washington, D.C., accepting McKinley Middle Academic Magnet School’s National Blue Ribbon Award from U.S. Department of Education’s Director of National Blue Ribbon Schools Program Aba Kumi (center). The event, which recognized some 314 schools from across the United States, was held at the Omni Hotel. Click herefor story.
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