National Nutrition Month, Compass in the Community


Every March, since he was in 2nd grade, we have visited my grandson's school for a healthy eating demo during National Nutrition Month. Normally we talk to about 25 students in his classroom. However, when we started to plan this year's event, students from other classes who had seen the presentations in previous years also wanted to come. So, Fulton Manor dining services director Scott Schaab, and myself gave this year's talk to 60, 6th grade students in the school cafeteria. I wanted to talk about: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly food choices but I was pretty sure this age group doesn't know who Clint Eastwood is. Tammy Goldsmith, Morrison RD, came to my rescue with a GO, SLOW, WHOA presentation. The progression went from eating whole grains such as oatmeal as often as you like, to eating Cocoa Pebbles (we couldn't find Count Chocula) hardly ever. After that we prepared fruit and vegetable smoothies, an healthy alternative to Shamrock Shakes, for them to try. Our client, Holland Home, supplied logoed water bottles for everyone (a big hit) and we had NNM pens, pencils and printouts for them. Middle school cafeterias have changed a lot since 1969. They take Mastercard now.

Brian Brookman CEC | Executive Chef - Fulton Manor