HEALTH
200-
1 -thy
a
%Immo
Akiva's youngest students thrive on fruits and vegetables.
When it comes to food, everybody has a
different definition of "healthy." If you're
concerned your preschool's snacks aren't
up to par, here are some steps you can
take to make a change:
• Approach the director. Ask how snacks
are chosen.
• If cost is a factor, poll parents to measure
their interest in supplementing what the
school cannot provide.
• Consult the Michigan Department of
Human Services guidelines on preschool
snacks. See if state or federal grants are
available to subsidize school foods.
• Make a donation — of food — to your
child's school. Shop at a place like Costco
or Sam's Club or local farmers markets
where fruit and vegetables in large quanti-
ties often cost less than at supermarkets.
H .
.00
• Rally parents into approaching local
stores about making donations to the
school. Businesses make donations
annually.
• When all else fails, pack a homemade
snack for your child and inform the
teacher about it.
— Lynne Meredith Schreiber
Yossi Nadel, 4, of Southfield and Uri Isaacs, 5, of Oak Park
BY LYNNE MEREDITH SCHREIBER
eir Tatelbaum, 5, walked proudly into
his preschool classroom at Yeshivat
Akiva last fall toting a bag of cucum-
bers he picked from the bountiful garden behind his
Southfield brick ranch house. As part of a new program
to promote healthy eating, it was the Tatelbaums' turn
to provide a week's worth of school snacks.
"I like the cucumbers," says Meir. "I like the colors
[of all the fruits and vegetables]. I like eating them."
"It's so wonderful that they teach them at such a
young age to eat healthy," says Meir's mother, Marcy.
"It's different each week, and they teach it in a way
the kids enjoy. Meir talks about the snacks."
Last fall, the Southfield Orthodox school's early
childhood director Beth Raz decided to do something
about the amount of sugar and processed foods she saw
Estee Brown, 5, of Southfield
youngsters ingesting during the school day. Against a
national backdrop of talk about rising rates of child-
hood obesity, Raz took matters into her own hands and
figured out a way to provide fruits and vegetables to
the children without costing the school additional
money.
"I feel very strongly that children should be having
healthy snacks," Raz says. "It's not so much the idea of
fresh fruit or vegetables; it's the idea of not having so
much sugar in their systems. But it's costly to have
fresh fruit and vegetables."
So Raz asked the parents of Akiva's preschoolers and
kindergarteners to take turns providing the snacks.
"The parents were excited about it and very willing to
help," she says.
Some parents cut up melons, others provide quarts
Continued on page 22
JNPLATINUM • AUGUST 2005 •
2 1