Reflection:
Students Learn To Create Healthy Meals
As a young elementary schooler back in the day I remember my favorite period was always lunch time. Lunch time is still a glorified part of many students days as they get to relax from class work and hung out with friends freely without the worry that they will get in trouble for talking with them like they do in class. Lunch can be a very diverse as a person glances around the lunchroom they will see many different types food choice for students. In this informational memo it will explain children knowledge of food, why cooking in the classroom is needed, and child nutrition.
Osowski, Göranzon, and Fjellström article Children’s understanding of food and meals in the foolscap at school is the study of interviewing students to gain insight to their knowledge about the foodscapes at their schools. In Sweden many times teachers will eat with their students in canteens (otherwise know as the cafeteria) as they aim to share the knowledge about healthy meals with their students. The study’s data was collected at three different schools around Sweden. At these schools the pupils were taught at an early age about healthy meal and this is the assessment result after a year of the students being taught;
The three schools fulfilled the inclusion criteria, which entailed being heterogeneous in their characteristics regarding number of pupils, location and meals served. Without having checked the socio-economic status of the children participating in the study, we dare say that the schools represented mostly middle-class parts of Sweden. Thus, the socio-economic criterion was not in focus in this study; rather children's own peer culture, consisting of children at a certain age group in a particular context, where food was a dominant part of this peer culture's everyday life. Neither was gender a criterion for sampling, or initial analyses, but due to the emerging empirical data, gender issues were still discussed. School 1 (205 pupils) was situated in a densely populated area, school 2 (285 pupils) was situated in the largest town in the municipality and school 3 (160 pupils) was situated in the countryside. Besides free school lunch, school 3 also served breakfast for a fee. School 2 mainly used a central kitchen for their food supply, whereas school 1 and 3 cooked the food at school. (Persson Osowski, Fjellström, Olsson & Göranzon, accepted; Persson Osowski, Göranzon & Fjellström)
By taking the data they received from observation in the three schools they found that children classified school food and home food differently. The students were also able to identify healthy and unhealthy foods. For example the students said in this study that “ Fruit, vegetables, fish, chicken, fibres and wholemeal were seen as healthful whereas cream, pizza, hamburgers, candy and jam were seen as unhealthy.” However the students did have trouble with places some meals into a category.
To benefit the students health and the community health it is important that we teach students the proper way in which to cook. Cosgrove wrote Cooking in the Classroom: The Doorway to Nutrition about how the key for students future healthy eating habits might lay on giving students early food preparation lessons with nutritious foods. Since many families are on the go they end up eating fast food and as the saying goes old habits die hard and having to reverse bad nutrition habits later in our students will make for a difficult situations. School can feed off of students natural curiosity about new ideas. For example children often are found imitating the adult figures in their life as they admire and want to be like them, which is displayed through their play and many students at some point will pretend play kitchen. Teachers and schools can benefit greatly by teaching students meal lessons as it involves the use of all five senses, motor, sensory, conceptual, social skills, measuring(math), science, team building, and manners as stated in the article by Cosgrove. A different article written by Dahl called Why Cooking in the Classroom? discusses that by applying cooking lessons in the classroom is allows for parents to get more involved with their students. Dahl also agrees with Cosgrove that cooking besides teaching students about healthy meals hits on a variety of other school subjects and valuable learning skills for the students.
Child nutrition is important as article Fuel for Fun: a cluster-randomized controlled study of cooking skills, eating behaviors, and physical activity of 4th graders and their families stated
Childhood obesity remains a serious concern in the United Staes and in many other countries. Direct experience preparing and tasting healthful foods and increasing activity during the school day are promising prevention approaches. Engaging parents and families remains an important challenge. (1)
This study hopes to promote healthy food chooses within the community through students. The study also found that by cooking fruit and veggies within the classroom it helped with students nutritional needs. Fuel for Fun or FFF is designed with a social-ecological approach.
FFF incorporates the testing, validated CWK program into wider school environments to include the cafeteria and facilitate family involvement. FFF builds on prior research to engage multiple sectors of the community to reduce the rick of childhood obesity by promoting healthful food and activity environments, policies, and behaviors through: 1) developing and testing the efficacy of the 4th grade comprehensive school- and family-based intervention, 2) applying this intervention to an after school setting, and, 3) state-wide program dissemination (2).
By FFF conducting this research that is stated above the schools were able to teach students about good nutritional values. in the book School Meals: Building Blocks for Healthy Children by Committee on Nutrition Standards for National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs , and Institute of Medicine this research is about how giving the students different food options in the cafeteria and nutrition education it will have an impact on what the students choose to eat at school and hopefully when they prepare their own meals at home. A study was done about the food and nutritional needs within the United States school systems for the student it was set to help revise the need requirements on the SBP Nutrition Standards and Meal Requirements. They hoped to develop the new standards based around well-conceived, practical, and economical status. Nutritional needs for students have been implemented within classrooms since the first day they walked in the door of the school. The need of nutrition and making a students aware of what they need to help them have a healthy body and lifestyle allows for the child to gain the sense of critical thinking and personal responsibility.
In conclusion by the development of cooking classes in the school curriculum it helps with the students knowledge of the healthy food out there, the nutritional facts about those healthy foods, and how to actual prepare themselves the health meals that their bodies crave.
References:
Dahl, K. (1998). Why Cooking in the Classroom? Young Children, 53(1), 81-83.
Cosgrove, Maryellen Smith. (1991). Cooking in the Classroom: The Doorway to Nutrition. Young Children, 46(3), 43-46.
Cunningham-Sabo, Leslie, Lohse, Barbara, Smith, Stephanie, Browning, Ray, Strutz, Erin, Nigg, Claudio, . . . Ruder, Elizabeth. (2016). Fuel for Fun: A cluster-randomized controlled study of cooking skills, eating behaviors, and physical activity of 4th graders and their families. BMC Public Health, 16(442), BMC Public Health, May 26, 2016, Vol.16(442).
Lukas, Catherine V., & Cunningham-Sabo, Leslie. (2011). Qualitative Investigation of the "Cooking with Kids" Program: Focus Group Interviews with Fourth-Grade Students, Teachers, and Food Educators. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 43(6), 517-524.
Stallings, V., Suitor, Carol West, Taylor, Christine Lewis, & Institute of Medicine . Committee on Nutrition Standards for National School Lunch Breakfast Programs. (2010). School meals : Building blocks for healthy children. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press.
Osowski, C., Göranzon, H., & Fjellström, C. (2012). Children's understanding of food and meals in the foodscape at school. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 36(1), 54-60.
Torralba, J., & Guidalli, B. (2014). Developing a Conceptual Framework for Understanding Children's Eating Practices at School. International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food, 21(3), 275-292.