The Lifelong Impacts of Nutrition on Kids
In southern Colorado, thousands of people – a startling number of whom are children under 18 — are challenged to get just one meal and must rely on food donations from homeless shelters, emergency food pantries and soup kitchens for that.
Chef William Von Goeben is Colorado’s chairperson for Chef and Child, a program of the American Culinary Federation that teaches children the benefits of proper nutrition. Chef William says that Colorado’s hungry children don’t have access to luxuries like fruits and vegetables; they survive on what’s given to them, often forsaking quality for quantity. To help overcome nutritional deficits, Chef and Child collaborates with charities such as southern Colorado’s Care and Share Food Bank.
“Half our challenge is solved through generous food donations from Care and Share. The other half – teaching kids the value of healthy eating and how it affects their lives – can have a lifelong impact,” says Chef William. “We use simple, fun, hands-on demonstrations to show kids how they can make nutritious snacks. We also talk about the importance of sanitation when handling food, which most of these kids have never heard before.
Care & Share Food Bank is a southern Colorado-based, not-for-profit food bank affiliated with America’s Second Harvest, a national network of food banks. In 2003 alone, Care & Share Food Bank distributed 6.1 million pounds of food to 400 human service agencies serving 25,000 people each week. Children live in 41 percent of the homes that receive Care and Share’s food assistance.
“People are completely misinformed about who is hungry, and may be hesitant to give food because they picture ‘lazy’ adults taking advantage of charity,” says Shawna Kemppainen, Care and Share’s development director. “But that’s as far from the truth as you can get,” she says, explaining that children and low-income seniors receive a significant portion of the food bank food and that 47 percent of the families served are working families.
Since 2002, Care and Share has helped support its Children’s Nutrition Initiative (CNI) through annual gifts exceeding $20,000 from the Gay & Lesbian Fund for Colorado. CNI provides resources to feed needy children, promotes children’s nutritional development through a network of partner agencies and improves the nutritional value of food supplies.
At the most basic level, the funding from the Gay & Lesbian Fund for Colorado ensures that healthful food makes it to the plates of struggling families,” says Kemppainen, adding that her long-term goal is to end hunger in southern Colorado. Emphasizing that the solutions to hunger problems must come from the grassroots, she says: “When organizations such as shelters and food pantries don’t have to struggle for daily bread, they can work on ensuring that they are addressing the core issues of hunger and poverty – issues such as education, healthcare, literacy, addiction and fair wages.”
According to Chef William, education about where food comes from and how it affects our bodies has a life-long impact on kids. His outreach through CNI to children in programs such as Head Start, Boys and Girls Clubs and in middle schools helps fulfill his personal mission of helping kids appreciate good food through the culinary arts.
“Whether we’re making turkey wraps or talking about the major food groups, these children are taking something home. In an immediate sense, they’re going home with full bellies. But the lasting impact centers on the notion that nutrition creates a healthy balance and is fun. Some kids have even told me they’d like to be chefs some day.
