Third-grade students from the West Dover Elementary School in Toms River participated in a Childhood Hunger Day forum when they traveled to Fulfill, the food bank of Monmouth and Ocean County that is located in Neptune.
The 2018 Childhood Hunger Day forum was provided not only by Fulfill, but by the New Jersey chapter of the American Culinary Federation (ACF).
Erin Leo from Fulfill organized the event on Oct. 16.
“West Dover Elementary School has been participating in the event since 2009. The children are always great at this event,” Leo said.
Leo said she hopes that the 60 children were able to take away the tools they will need to make healthy food choices.
“The event had six different stations. We started by having a presentation by the chefs to teach a little about nutrition. Two stations were held by the ACF. The stations were smoothie making and fruit/vegetable carving. The other stations Fulfill had were nutrition trivia, a matching game with cards, a relay race, and the final station had a gardener who helped the children harvest seeds to be planted next year,” Leo said.
Leo said she hopes the children are more aware about nutritional choices even though they are young.
Jane Hoyt, a teacher at West Dover, is the school’s coordinanator in the event. She said all three of the third grade classes attended.
“We became involved with the event when the director of our school’s food services Peter Brattan connections to Fulfill asked us to be a part of the day,” Hoyt said.
Principal Michael Pallen said administrators decided on only third graders to participate because the youngsters are at the correct age to continue to learn about having a healthy lifestyle.
“Our health classes at the school and the Childhood Hunger Day event at Fulfill go hand in hand. The children are always excited to participate in this event,” Pallen said.
Hoyt said she also hoped the children could see how eating nutritional meals gives them good fuel in order to have a successful day.
