Bakersfield fifth grade to experience new 4-H SNAC Program

BAKERSFIELD, Mo.- Twenty-seven fifth grade students at Bakersfield Elementary are about to embark on a journey.  This journey will take them down a multi-disciplinary path towards nutrition education, publications, hands-on applications, and leadership.  Thanks to a grant through Missouri 4-H, Bakersfield fifth graders will soon become 4-H SNAC club members.

4-H Student Nutrition Advisory Council (SNAC) initiative is a program developed with the University of Missouri Extension’s Family Nutrition Education Program and Missouri 4-H.  The club, which has no cost to members, focuses on teaching nutrition along with leadership and citizenship skills that are central to 4-H.  SNAC clubs across Missouri are being established to reach new youth and families through partnerships with nutrition education programs, schools, and other nutrition education programs for underserved youth. The club will meet in school with the local nutrition educator serving as the club leader.

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“I am so excited for this program,” stated Ozark County Nutrition Educator Alicia Amyx-Winrod.  “This is an opportunity to share 4-H with students who are not exposed to traditional 4-H clubs while teaching proper nutrition and leadership.  We were so excited to receive this grant!”

As part of the program, Amyx-Windrod will be teaching the fifth graders Kids in the Kitchen, a curriculum normally taught by nutrition educators like Amyx-Windrod.  What makes the program a 4-H program is the students will have to participate in an advocacy project where they apply the techniques and knowledge learned and in turn educate their community.  For the advocacy project, Amyx-Windrod has decided students will make a healthy recipe cookbook and then distribute to the local food pantry.

The fifth-grade teacher Amyx-Windrod has partnered with plans to use this program as curricula in four subjects.  This will be an English project with the writing, research, and publishing involved in making the cookbooks.  For science class students will be cooking, analyzing nutrition data, and will see the impact of health changes due to healthy decisions.  For math, students will be practicing fractions, doubling recipes, and measuring, and social studies students will research different culture’s recipes, and will study foods by location and growth.  Students will gain all this through the 4-H SNAC project.

Ozark County Youth Development Specialist Dr. Krista Tate helped secure the grant for the project.  Ozark County received $500 to pay for supplies for the advocacy project as well as t-shirts for the students.

“With this different approach to 4-H the state office is trying to reach new students while teaching them life lessons such as healthy eating and exercise,” Tate said.  “I am thrilled Ozark County students gets to participate in this opportunity.”

For more information on 4-H or this particular program, contact Dr. Tate at 417-256-2391 or via email at tatekr@missouri.edu

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Wood & Huston