The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Public Library program introduces healthy foods, recipes to families
Food and Fun came to Lorain Public Library System’s Main Branch for a second time this year March 17 to introduce healthy foods and recipes to teens, children and their parents.
The Food and Fun program welcomed a room full of engaged guests to the Main Branch, 351 W. 6 St. in Lorain.
In the returning program, teens and youngsters were provided boxed lunches before learning about how to color your palate with healthy food activities.
Youth Services librarian Julie Brown engaged the audience through activities that can promote healthier living through food, she said.
The activity introduced foods in groups of fruits, vegetables, grains, protein, dairy and empty calories.
Teenagers and children participated by identifying foods by color and type of food group.
A colorful Southwest Chicken Salad was provided by Brown so youngsters and their families could have a more visual and tasty experience when learning about healthier foods, she said.
“We are trying to do this at a very visual, hands-on kind of way for the kids to promote healthy living,” Brown said.
To conclude the program, families and other children were provided with food kits by Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio that included recipes and foods that can encourage kids and teenagers to eat healthier and create meals with families, she said.
The Food and Fun program has grown quickly and children have responded very well, Brown added.
Michelle Ortiz, 14 from Lorain, said she attends different library programs but Food and Fun is not like the others.
Michelle said she enjoys this program because it is more visual where one can learn about different, healthy foods then take some of them home after.
“I think it’s easier like that because (program staff) don’t just (tell) you how to do it,” she said as she explained the visual experience of the program. “You experience it with them.”
I will take this with me more the long run the more I learn about it.
Michelle said eating more colorful and healthier foods is something she is beginning to do with her family and wants to continue doing it the more she learns about it.
Mother Belicia Otero of Lorain attended the program for the first time with her children and said she really enjoyed it.
During the learning activity, she said she was surprised how much her daughter, Amoni, 8, knew about the different types of food and their food groups.
“This is a good program to teach healthy eating,” Otero said. “It’s nice to install that into kids at an early ages and parents as well.”
She added that the program is a great learning experience, something good and inexpensive to do as a family together.