The UMass Extension Nutrition Education program has been teaching 2nd grade children in Fall River elementary schools about how they can improve their nutrition at home. Instructors have been meeting an hour a week during the 2006-2007 school year with children in the Doran, Carroll, Coughlin, Greene and Healey schools. Content includes the major food groups in the new food pyramid (www.MyPyramid.gov) as well as a session on food safety and nutrition facts label reading. A year-long pilot program is also being conducted at the Osbourne and NB Borden schools that provides nutrition education in grades K-5 once a week for the whole school year. "The kids are eager to learn and are our best teachers with parents," states Jennifer Williams, an instructor with the program. "I often hear stories of how children will learn to read nutrition labels of food packages and then inform their parents about how that compares with what they should be eating," she adds. For more information about the program, contact Pat Bebo at 508-675-7315.
 

(Top row, left) Osbourne School Principal welcomes Jessica Williams to the school each week to provide instruction to second graders. (Top row, center) Third-grader Alexis Mota points to the nutrition display at the Osbourne Elementary School while principal Anna Riley looks over the material. (Top row, right) Ms. Williams provides Grace Amaral some nutrition education material to use with her nine-year-old daugher Alyssa. (Middle row) Nutrition educator Luz Marina Ocampo teaches second-graders at the Healey School about fats and oils. (Bottom row, left and right) Ms. Ocampo goes over the new food pyramid to teach children about the components of a healthy diet. (Bottom row, center) Ms. Ocampo helps Samantha Robichaud and Anantai Box measure fats in a demonstration about fats and oils.