Eating SmART

Thanks to the generous support of our funders, we at Sierra Dove were able to provide weekly take-home food, daily healthy snacks, nutritional guidance lessons, movement and

music lessons, a community gardening experience, and art enrichment programming for 225 youth who attended Eating Smart this summer. The eleven-week program took place at

two locations of the Mescalero Apache Boys and Girls Club.This is a much needed program in our state because in New Mexico, one in every four children go to bed hungry.  Food

insecurity is especially high during the summer months, when children do not have access to the free/reduced USDA breakfast and lunch that are offered during the school year.

Nutritional Guidance through the Arts

One of our main objectives is to provide

fresh, wholesome snacks and nutritional

guidance lessons, which empower children to

make healthier food choices.

The children received wholesome snacks each day, such as fresh apple

and celery slices with peanut butter, grapes, yogurt, and granola.

Our Vision for Eating SmART

Eating SmART Staff Training

Our vision is to expand the Eating SmART program to include eight new sites in

high needs areas of the state by the summer of 2010, raising the number of

youth served through ES to 1,200 school-age children within the coming year.

We will focus first on establishing new sites in our home territory of Lincoln and

Otero Counties and in the Albuquerque area.

In May, 2009, Julia Price and Patsy Blasdell conducted the first Eating

Smart staff training for twelve staff members of the Mescalero Boys and

Girls Club. The training insures that they will be able to assist in a more

hands-on way with the nutritional guidance lessons, art, music, and other

aspects of the program. They also had the chance to create some of the art

projects that the children experience during the summer, like making a Whole

Food Color Wheel of healthy food options.

A twelve-week Eating SmART Curriculum and Instructors’ Manual for Pre-K

through Grade 6, written by Julia Price, is available as a part of the

training. The curriculum can be used to implement a summer or after-school

nutritional guidance program, or it can be integrated into a language arts

curriculum offered during regular school hours.

If you are interested in arranging an Eating Smart training for their school

or youth club, or in learning more about Eating SmART,  please contact Julia

Price, Eating SmART Program Director, by calling 575-336-1933 or

email Julia

The Garden Project

The community garden, which we build

together throughout the spring and

summer, teaches sustainable living and

the growth and nurturing of edible

plants. The garden brings the nutritional

concepts to life and becomes an

additional food source for the kids and

their families. The garden project also

increases environmental awareness and

provides opportunities to hone math,

science, and language arts skills.

We implement the garden project in a number of different ways suitable to each

location, with projects ranging from container gardening to raised beds and grow

boxes. At the BGC Main Unit in 2009, the children helped design a Three Sisters

Garden using native seeds, a Pizza Garden, and a Sunflower House. At the Carrizo Unit,

we built a garden in grow boxes with greenhouse lids donated by Veggie Grower.

Many of the aspects of our program, such as the garden project and nutritional

guidance lessons, have been incorporated as best practices for the 46 sites operated

by the NM Collaboration to End Hunger around the state.

Community Support for

Eating SmART

The Ruidoso Lions’ Club and Optimists Club, Eco-Servants,  

Lincoln County Sheriff’s Posse, Lincoln County Garden Club,

Compass Bank, ENMU Phys Ed Department,  Boys and

Girls Club, Alamogordo Elks Club, Walmart, Ruidoso Computer Genie, The Wild Herb Market, along with many individual donors, are generous supporters and volunteers

for Eating SmART.

A highlight of the program for the kids every summer is the caving expedition at

Fort Stanton, provided by Sierra Dove in partnership with Eco-Servants.

Eating Smart is a health and wellness curriculum for children, pre-K through grade six. The goal of Eating Smart (ES) is to motivate children to make healthy food choices and to increase physical activity to at least 30 minutes daily. The program provides nutritional guidance combined with a variety of fun, challenging exercise options. Each nutritional lesson is accompanied by corresponding age-appropriate literacy, math, science, gardening, cooking/Taste Adventures, and arts-based cooperative learning activities that teach important life skills.

Objectives:

The program’s main objective is to reduce the growing obesity rate by

encouraging children and their families to:

•  increase their physical activity level
•  eat a healthy breakfast
•  increase fruit, vegetable, and whole grain consumption
•  drink more water
•  choose low-fat snacks
•  consume healthy fats in small amounts
•  read labels/shop wisely and prepare balanced meals

Eating Smart is an innovative program that works across the curriculum to

strengthen physical health and motor skill development, language and

pre-reading skills, social skills, and problem solving abilities. ES encourages youth empowerment and self expression through the arts. Children engage in hands-on activities that promote an understanding of the way plants grow and why certain nutrients are important to our health.

Teacher trainings for the Eating Smart Curriculum can be scheduled upon request. For more information, please contact the Program Director, Julia Price: email Julia

Eating Smart Summer Food Distribution

During the summer months when food insecurity is at its highest, Sierra Dove partners with the New Mexico Collaboration to End Hunger to provide weekend, take-home food for the children as a part of Eating Smart.