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Holly Daniels Ms. Caruso ENGL: 1102 29 April 201318 April 2013 Memo: Childhood obesity has been growing over the past 30 years, and slowly educators from over the country are banning together to try and solve this epidemic by encouraging children to get involved. One food educator has created the Food is Elementary curriculum, which is a vegetarian recipe program for schools that has grown to over 3000 schools across the US. Curriculum is taught to teach children to explore new healthy foods, but with only vegetarian recipes meats are not included. I simply suggest why meats should be incorporated into the Food is Elementary curriculum, with its success, incorporating meats would be lifelong beneficial to the growing minds of the children. If you are interested in reading the full article, Tackling Childhood Obesity, then simply go to onestepatatime.com and look for it in the school meals tab. Tackling Childhood Obesity http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/sectionfront/life/teaching-young-students-to-enjoynutritious-school-meals-236800/ For the past 30 years the childhood obesity epidemic has grown, with numbers tripling in adolescents and doubling for young children. In a recent article, Teaching young students to enjoy nutritious school meals, China Millman the author writes about how I read that there are schools attempting to help tackle this problem,. were Tteachers are training to become food educators through the Food is Elementary curriculum by Antonia Demas.

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Antonia Demas is a vegetarian food educator, who has a Ph.D. in education, nutrition, and anthropology from Cornell University (FSI Board of Directors, Antonia Demas, par. 1). At Cornell University she came up with her doctoral thesis that a food based curriculum helps children accept the variety of healthy food in the lunch program (Hold the Fries: Three Programs Are Changing Student Nutrition, par. 12). After graduating from Cornell University her thesis gave life to the Food Studies Institute, which is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the health of children by involving them in learning to cook wholesome plant-based food meals (Dr. Antonia Demas - Inspiring Children and Schools with the Benefits of a Vegetarian Diet,Couch par. 1). She then created the Food is Elementary curriculum, where she has made it possible to take her dedication of improving childrens health into the classroom. The Food is Elementary curriculum is a program that integrates the academic studies in the classroom with hands on learning with healthful foods and recipes. She works with schools introducing healthful foods through the traditions and arts of different cultures (CurriculumFood Studies Institute, par. 2), peeking childrens creativity and curiosity to engage them in learning, and teaching children a skill that they able to take with them the rest of their lives. The curriculum uses specific recipes to keep cost low for the school, by basing them around commodity foods that schools can get for free from the Department of Agriculture as part of the federal subsidy for the school lunch program (Teaching young students to enjoy nutritious school meals, Millman par. 11). The program is obviously a very well thought out curriculum that schools are easily able to afford and is going to help out the children in the long run, saving future generations from becoming obese and very unhealthy. The program is growing more and more as the word gets out of how much the students are learning about being healthy and loving it at the same time. As of 2012 the Food is
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Elementary curriculum has been taught in over 3000 schools in the US and everyday teachers are enrolling to become certified food educators so they can bring the program to their schools as well. The teachers see that the curriculum is working in other schools, which then encourages them to take that step to become a food educator to improve their students health and fight childhood obesity. There is no doubt that Antonia Demas has proven that she knew what she was doing when she founded the organization and the program or that the curriculum is working with it growing every year, but like all good things there is always room for improvement. Such as the recipes, they are healthy but all vegetarianThe recipes could be improved from all vegetarian to adding in lean meats., because Ffor children to take a full life lesson from the curriculum it needs to expand to meats, poultry and fish (Ill refer to as meats). Vegetarian recipes are very healthful, but children need to learn how meats, fish and poultry (Ill refer to as meats) are also a part of a healthful diet. A vegetarian diet has loads of nutrition, but meats are also have a great source of nutrients. Poultry would be the best lean meat with high amounts of protein, which in children helps promote healthy growth and physical development. There are substitutes for protein, but its important for children to have the option to choose whether he/she wants to eat a vegetarian diet. Theres no question that no one needs to eat fatty red meat, but even trimmed lean meat still has fats. A little fat is healthy for everyone including children, a healthy amount helps the brain and the nervous system develop correctly (Fats and Your Child,Gavin par. 7). Its all about teaching moderation and how much fat on red meat is healthy or unhealthy. Meats are also high in zinc, which helps [repair skin injuries], it also builds strong bones, teeth, liver and immune system (Vitamins & Nutrients in Red MeatNelson par. 6); along with other nutrients
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are key to a growing childs active lifestyle. Fish equally contributes to a healthy growi ng child with plenty of omega-3, which improve the functioning of the brain and nervous system, eyesight, immune system, heart health, intelligence, behavior and moods (The Importance of Omega 3 for your growing children, par. 1). Its not only about the protein and nutrients available in the meat but that the importance of children knowing what a healthy serving of meat is, how much is too much and how to prepare it to keep it healthy. For instance a good example of a healthy recipe would be whole grain grilled chicken breast wraps. The teacher could use a George Forman grill to cook the chicken, while it is cooking teaching the children that there are several different ways to cook chicken, but the best ways are grilled, boiled, broiled (cooked in the oven) and/or roasted. Once the chicken is done the teacher can cut up the chicken into slices, telling children just because its good for doesnt mean it cant become unhealthy when you have too much. Then pass out one to two slices depending on size of strips, along with their whole grain wraps under the chicken. When every child has one they will go to their group tables where there will be bowls of lettuce, tomato, sweet onion, dill pickle spears, cheese and raspberry vinaigrette dressing. The teacher can then have them measure out a tablespoon of the dressing and two tablespoons of 2% reduced fat cheese to go on their wrap and then have them construct how they want, and go around and helping them to close it up. This way the children still get to be hands on and have fun without handling the meat, but teaching the fundamentals of dealing with meat early and then when they are in about fourth and/or fifth grade they could start handling the meat. Children also need to learn about how to handle meat and how to always make sure to wash your hands because of parasites (for children to understand, we can call them bugsbugs for kids) that you cant see are on your hands after handling meat. In the above example of the
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whole grain grilled chicken breast wrap, once the teacher has handled the meat, she can go to the sink and wash her hands really good. Then talk to the children about the parasites that is on raw meat and that it is real important to wash your hands and cook the meat really good to make sure to get rid of them all, because parasites are bad for the body. The teacher would be able to tie the vegetables and meat together here, because the children need to know that it is not only meat that you need to look out for parasites but vegetables too, that they cannot be pulled straight from the ground and eaten they need to be washed. Its important to instill all of the Food is Elementary curriculum in children but it is equally important to add in meats that way they have the fundamentals needed to start a healthy life.
Comment [BC12]: Holly, You certainly do have a strong article here, and it is obvious that you are well-informed. However, as you work to revise, I would suggest that you use a bit more information from your sources to make your points, and that you comment on those items that other people have said. You tend to let your sources speak for you, leading your reader to an idea, but not quite getting there. We want to hear what you have to say how you qualify these sources and what we should be listening to. Im looking forward to seeing how youll strengthen your article for the portfolio! Formatted: Font: Times New Roman, 12 pt

Works Cited No Author. Curriculum-Food Studies Institute. The food studies institute. December 21, 2010. Web. April 04, 2013 Rosemary. The Food is Elementary Program. Cooking Green with Rosemay. Date N/A. Web. April 04, 2013 Anonymous. About Us, FSI Board of Directors, Antonia Demas. The food studies institute. February 2, 2012. Web. April 04, 2013 Anonymous. Hold the Fries: Three Programs Are Changing Student Nutrition. Education World. Date N/A. Web. April 04, 2013

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China Millman. Teaching young students to enjoy nutritious school meals. Pittsburgh PostGazzette. March 08, 2010. Web. April 08, 2013 Anonymous. Adolescents and School Health, Childhood Obesity Facts. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. February 19, 2013. Web. April 08, 2013 Debra Couch. Dr. Antonia Demas - Inspiring Children and Schools with the Benefits of a Vegetarian Diet. Shining World Awards. Date N/A. Web. April 08, 2013 Michelle Corrigan. Food is Elementary small.mov. Youtube. June 07, 2012. Web. April 08, 2013 Dorian Facey. What Does Meat Food Group Do for Your Body? LIVESTRONG.com. June 14, 2011. Web. April 08, 2013 Mary L. Gavin. Fats and Your Child. Kids Health. February 2012. Web. April 08, 2013 Anonymous. Nutritional Values, Proteins. Perutnina Ptuj. 2013. Web. April 08, 2013 Rachel Nelson. VITAMINS & NUTRIENTS IN RED MEAT. L IVESTRONG.com. September 13, 2010. Web. April 08, 2013 Anonymous. The Importance of Omega 3 for your growing children. Jivo Blog. 2012. Web. April 08, 2013

More Research The purpose of my article is to inform the public about the great program, Food is Elementary Curriculum and make suggestions of how I think it would benefit children if schools or Antonia Demas would incorporate meat into the recipes and learning. To make this point I would need to find out about how meats help growing children and information on nutrients in meat. To be able to fully comprehend and intelligently talk about the importance of

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meat for growing children I have to read about vegetarian recipes and how vegetarians get the nutrients that they would get meat from. I know that that this subject stemmed from a true event due to my research of all the schools that are getting involved in the curriculum. In my proposal I said that I was going to write to Antonia Demas in a letter, I have revised that and decided to go with an article, due to more people would see that could take my thoughts and make changes whether Antonia Demas decides to or not. I have pretty much revised my whole proposal, I have decide to just use facts on why meats would be beneficial for children instead of talking about appealing to the children. For my intended audience which would be parents interested in helping their children become healthy or schools interested in developing the curriculum to further benefit the children. To appeal to my unattended audience I talked about the curriculum and the founder Antonia Demas so that they could learn about it and how the founder is properly educated, so that way they can learn about the changes that are happening in our school in the US.