On Thursday evening, March 10, 2011, over 100 students and their family members joined Seeds of Living Education at Hamburg Central Middle School to taste many fresh delicious snacks before screening the film, “What’s on YOUR Plate?” This film follows the lively exploration by 2 eleven year old middle school girls from New York City. Like our students, these girls are curious and questioning about where exactly does their food come from. One thing for sure, we know where are food came for our Family Film and healthy Food Tasting Event -- fresh from the earth, alive with vital nutrients to nourish our bodies and mind made by the loving hands of our superb Food Service staff.
We feasted on a rainbow array of fresh garden veggies laid out in a colorful display with Hidden Valley® Organic Ranch as a companion dip. Other featured fresh offerings included quinoa veggie salad, fresh herb tabbouleh salad and a white bean barley salad. The event brought out families and their children ranging from kindergarten age through 7th grade. We also had 2 principals, the president and vice president of our school board and visitors from other Western New York schools districts.
Chipotle supplied a delicious abundance of freshly made corn chips, guacamole and salsa. BE Healthy Institute, our village’s newest nutritional and culinary business, provided on the spot freshly-juiced carrots, cucumbers and apples. We asked each person in attendance to think about one positive change they could take for their wellness when it comes to food and their diet. SOLE wishes to help awaken and engage students, their families and community in the food movement and process of well being and realizes that the incremental changes are the building blocks of true and lasting transformation.
This event was dedicated to our children and their natural curiosity and authentic and enthusiastic response to all of these food improvements and the larger food and wellness issue. They know what is best. We just need to provide the groundwork to make this change happen.
Our children are simply and profoundly dependent on we, the adults, to speak up for what is right and demand better for them and all of us. We all lead through example – that is the greatest lesson of all.
SOLE gratefully acknowledges the continuing support for The Giving Garden of Union Pleasant Elementary School from the makers of Hidden Valley® Salad Dressings Love Your Veggies campaign. SOLE was chosen because of its proven dedication to nutrition education. SOLE will help Hidden Valley® Love Your Veggies™ launch the Great Veggie Adventure, a search for new, kid-approved vegetables in The Giving Garden this growing season.
