Around the country: A study in good nutrition

A $10,000 grant from the Anglican diocese of Ottawa will allow students at the Greater Gatineau Elementary School to continue learning about how to eat healthfully.

The school’s principal, Judy Millar, initiated the Greater Gatineau Elementary Health and Wellness Project–which ran from March to June 2011–with a $6,000 grant from the province. When the funding ran out, the diocese offered to finance the program for another year, under the title, “Daily Bread Project.”

The project provides children from kindergarten to grade six with practical and hands-on lessons about nutritious and affordable food choices. After class discussions, the children make a shopping list and are taken to a local food store where they learn the ABCs of buying food wisely. Nutritionists, parents and community volunteers guide the children about how they can take advantage of store promotions and sales to make healthy meals.

After paying for the provisions, the children go back to school and prepare the healthy lunches, which they eat together.

Last Oct. 19, Millar invited the bishop of the diocese of Ottawa, John Chapman, and other guests to a healthy lunch prepared by the students.  Banana smoothie, tuna pasta salad, seven-layer salad, tortilla pinwheels, blueberry muffin trifle and fruit kabobs were among the items on the menu.

Bishop Chapman said his diocese was “absolutely thrilled” to be a part of the project, which he said was essential in building a “healthy, viable and just society.”

The diocese has earmarked $300,000 from its $12 million fundraising campaign for an initiative aimed at helping children living in Western Quebec and Eastern Ontario.

--Crosstalk