School / Community: Fairview Junior High
Fairview Junior High was fortunate to get Nutrition Month Funding this year from the HRSB Healthy School Community Team, to promote food literacy in our school. We used the funds we received to hold a “Build Your Own Lunch in a Bowl” event on March 28th.
A group of students helped prepare food the day before, and then another group of students set up our two lunch rooms for the free lunch the next day. Each student and staff member was given a bowl in which to create their own personalized lunch. They could choose from things like brown rice, quinoa, mixed greens, red cabbage, pulses, vegetables, dried cranberries, cheeses, and roasted seeds. The event was very popular and lots of students tried things they had never had before.
In addition to the free lunch for all, we held a Nutrition Month contest. Students had to fill in a sheet with information about healthy eating patterns and local food. They used a Nutrition Month fact sheet to discover what makes up a healthy eating pattern, and had to find the local food information posted around the halls in the school. All students who submitted correct answers were entered in a draw the last day of March. We gave away three prizes, one each for a student in Grade 7, 8 and 9. Prizes consisted of food preparation tools, recipe books and reusable bags to encourage students to prepare their own food at home.
Our Nutrition Month Funding helped us highlight local, healthy food and provided a great opportunity for our school community to come together and share a meal.