JCC Early Childhood Center Celebrates National Breakfast Week

In its continual mission to promote healthy eating and regular physical activity throughout the day, the Owings Mills Jewish Community Center Early Childhood Center celebrated National School Breakfast Week.  Parents and children participated in a special activity that promoted eating a healthy breakfast each morning.

The program began with a three minute video, Super Grover Eats Breakfast, showing the effects of skipping breakfast on Grover’s day.  Following the video, parents and children explored healthy well-balanced morning food options, learned how to build a healthy plate utilizing at least three of the five food groups, and tasted one food from each group, which included a whole grain, low-sugar cereal, and a soy based vegetarian patty. The children, who have learned fruit juice should be limited to no more than one serving a day, also, sampled a sweet purple juice of sweet potatoes, purple carrots, and tomatoes.

National School Breakfast Week gave Chris Sigman, Director of Healthy Choices Programming, and Janene Malamud, Health Science Educator, the opportunity to reinforce the importance of eating colors of the rainbow, whole grains, five fruits and vegetables each day, and protein in the form of a lean meat, nuts, beans or a low-fat dairy product.

After the event parents were offered information concerning picky eating, proper portions for preschoolers, sample menu plans and resources to obtain pertinent information for health and the preschool aged child.

Last year the Owings Mills Jewish Community Center Early Childhood Center was one of twelve schools in the United States to be recognized by Michelle Obama’sLet’s Move Childcare Initiative and honored by the Center of Disease Control at a luncheon in Washington, D. C. for all that it has done to make a positive impact on the health destiny of the children whom it serves.