Healthy Habits Program Teaches a Healthy Lifestyle in Schools

September 29th, 2011

New Orleans Outreach’s Healthy Habits program is generating interest as evidence is showing more and more that a healthy lifestyle is an integral to a student’s success in school.

According to Angela Herbert, Outreach Executive Director, “With a rigorous school day that may run from 8:30 AM to after 5PM, it is important for students to have healthy habits, without them it is much more difficult to succeed.”

She added, “Healthy Habits are much more than just nutrition, they are more than healthy eating, they are a lifestyle.”

Working with its partner schools and creating programming to fit the schools’ individual requirements, proper nutrition, healthy eating, cooking classes, and exercise are all part of the Outreach Healthy Habits curriculum. Based on our experience, enrichment classes centered on those topics are very popular with students, and along with physical activities, serve as a “tipping point” as students progress from healthy eating habits to healthy school and lifestyle habits. Enrichment teachers and volunteers serve as positive, reinforcing role models and the lessons are much more effective and often brought home to the dinner table when older students prepare meals or snacks for younger siblings or when they start and care for a vegetable garden. Sports offer participating students the opportunity for physical activity, a chance to compete, to learn about teamwork and responsibility.

Recently Outreach partnered with Zespri Kiwifruit, a New Zealand based multi-national food corporation and Rouse’s Supermarket to raise awareness of the epidemic of childhood obesity. Among the highlights was an event at a Rouse’s store that included staff from the New Orleans Health Department and cooking demonstrations for students.

Another Healthy Habits highlight has been the swimming class for Sci high students that Loyola University is hosting at the behest of Outreach. Students are learning to swim for safety and for exercise.

WWL-TV aired a story about the program:

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