A group of fifth graders at Derby’s Irving School were guinea pigs in chef hats on Friday.
Students in Stacey Wasilnak’s class took part in a pilot program that aims to support a school-based obesity prevention initiative, developed and funded by Griffin Hospital and the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center (PRC).
The seven-week course, called “Cooking Matters,” is being tested in Derby in hopes of expanding it to the other Valley towns as part of the Valley Initiative to Advance Health & Learning in Schools (VITAHLS). During the lesson, students discuss basic nutrition and then cook one of four healthy recipes from a provided workbook.
Each session is about 90 minutes to two hours and is taught by a VITAHLS instructor. To ensure that time is not wasted, the lesson fits into the students’ science schedule and also fulfills their curriculum’s health requirements.
“It’s really designed to be integrated into the classroom so we don’t take away teaching time,” said Beth Comerford, Deputy Director of the Yale-Griffin Research Center. “And in the end it makes it easier for the teachers because the kids are more attentive when they’re doing something hands-on.”
The 16 students who participated on Friday (May 10) made black bean and vegetable quesadillas. They washed, peeled and prepared the vegetables while instructor Nicole Theriault cooked them in a skillet.
Many of them, including 11-year-old Arman Torrvellas, were unfamiliar in the kitchen and had never tried some of the ingredients.
“I never tasted zucchini before because I thought it was nasty, but I really like it,” he said. “I usually don’t cook at home because my mom tells me to stay away from the stove, so this is pretty cool.”
One of the “challenges” following the Cooking Matters lesson is for the kids to take the recipe home and make it with their parents.
“It’s a childhood obesity prevention initiative, but it’s really a community-based prevention initiative because the intention really is that staff at the schools will be naturally exposed to what’s going on,” Comerford said. “It’s a way for teachers to get physical activity in their day as well, and they get exposed to any nutritional changes in the cafeteria. And there is also a component for parents so will be engaging families as well.”
VITAHLS is designed so that the program as a whole will grow annually. Each year, a new course will be introduced and added to the previous year’s.
Last year “ABC For Fitness” was developed, where students take a few minutes of class time for activity bursts to keep alert and active.
“The idea is that one program in and of itself is not going to be effective or fix the obesity problem, but many different programs integrated into the school day and out of school, that sort of multidimensional approach is really what’s going to be effective,” Comerford said.
