Medical City Arlington (MCA) and Arlington Independent School District (AISD) have teamed up to promote healthy eating to students. This program allows for students to learn how to eat more fruits and vegetables during snack time straight from their peers.
Launching in 2010, Medical City Children’s Hospital created the kids teaching kids program that provides knowledge as well as resources to students and families on better eating habits. Over the past 30 years, studies have shown that kids are snacking more. This finding led Medical City to take action and begin educating kids and their families on ways to a healthier lifestyle through fruits and vegetables.
“kids teaching kids® is bringing communities together to help children eat healthier,” says Medical City Children’s Hospital. This program allows high school culinary students to have hands-on experience with registered dieticians while creating healthy, and fun snack recipes. These recipes will then be put into a recipe book created by high school graphic design and photography students for elementary students to take home to parents. Each snack can be easily prepared by the young students and has at least one serving of fruits and vegetables.
These recipe books are put into action during the 21-Day Snacking Challenge, where students participate in a three-week nutrition education initiative. Each participating district invites students to change their current after-school snacks to healthier options that include fruits and vegetables. MCA said, “Using the recipe books and our Healthy Snack Finder as a foundation, kids are empowered to create fun, healthy snacks on their own or with minimal supervision.”
We are thrilled to see the partnership between Medical City Arlington and AISD. The initiative of healthy snacking is a very important step in creating a healthier and more vibrant community. By providing healthy options to students at a young age, AISD and MCA are setting kids up for a healthier future and allows them to share what they have learned with family and friends.