July 28,
2010- On July 6, the
Recipe for Success Foundation kicked off its Seed-to-Plate Nutrition Education™
in six City of Houston Multi-Service centers, thanks to two generous grants: One to the City from
Houston Galveston Area Council and the other to Recipe for Success Foundation from The Children's Fund, Inc.
This is the
first time regular Recipe for Success Foundation Seed-to-Plate Nutrition Education™ classes have been given outside of a
school environment.
The Houston Health
Department
was so impressed by RFS
pilot results in elementary schools, that they aggressively spearheaded
a year-long effort to secure funding and
bring the classes to their multi-service community centers. At the
same time, we sought grants for this exciting
growth step.
The
Children's Fund announced their grant to Recipe for Success Foundation in
late 2009 and awarded it in May, 2010. The Houston-Galveston Area
Council awarded funds to the City in January and The Houston City Council approved
the
collaboration in May, 2010.
The new programming will be presented in two segments: Eat This!
Summer Camps followed in September by Eat This! & Kids Dig It!
After School programs.
The exciting step for the organization required some adjustments and we
relished the challenge! One of my primary goals when launching RFS, was to create a easily replicable program that
could be adapted to a broad spectrum of available resources and still
deliver the end results: changing children's attitudes and habits by
making healthy food fun. This vote of confidence from the City made us even more determined to
find solutions."
Campers
learn healthy eating habits through cooking and gardening classes and
then are taken one step further by learning how food is marketed to
them. Using their newly-acquired marketing knowledge, they create a
healthy food product from their own garden produce; then test, perfect,
package and sell it in their own market. With the profits, the
children will make a donation to the center's garden. It's the ultimate in
hands-on experiential learning. July
Eat This! Summer Campers plan to sell their handmade products at their
respective multi-service centers on Thursday, July 29 from noon until
1:00.
"We are really happy with Recipe for Success," said Martha Garza, Senior Program Manager at West End Multi-service Center. "Children are looking at labels and consuming different foods than they did before."
Thanks to the generous grant from The Children's
Fund, the
summer camps will be
followed in the coming school year by RFS Eat This!™ and Kids Dig It!™
after-school programing, which are also free to participating
elementary aged students. After school programs will operate twice
each week from 4:00 until 6:00.
"Recipe for Success Foundation liberates the kids from their habits," said Hannah Jeffers, Kashmere Multi-service Center volunteer. "When the volunteers and teachers get excited about vegetables and fresh food, so do the kids."
