Healthy Cooking Classes in Eatonville
Hebni Nutrition Consultants will provide hands-on healthy cooking classes and nutrition education to Eatonville residents at risk of or with diabetes thanks to a two-year $99,960 grant approved by the Winter Park Health Foundation (WPHF) through its Community Health Work Group.
The program will start in April at the soon-to-be-opened Healthy Eatonville Place, a diabetes health and wellness center funded in part by WPHF.
Called Project Oasis, the program provides families with hands-on cooking classes and nutrition education focused on increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables. It teaches participants how to cook healthy food and gives them up to eight servings of fruits and vegetables each week with a recipe card and cooking utensils to help them make healthy meals at home for the family. Health screenings for cholesterol, glucose levels, blood pressure, and Body Mass Index (BMI) measurements are provided in addition to weekly consumption surveys to assess the amount of fruits and vegetables the family consumes each week.
In addition, Hebni will provide the K.Y.D.S. Take Charge! (Keeping Your Diet Straight) after-school and summer program to target underserved elementary and middle school students who are at-risk for overweight and obesity.
The programs will be held at the Healthy Eatonville Place. K.Y.D.S. Take Charge! educates youth about proper nutrition and exercise. Components of the program include hands-on cooking demonstrations, weekly tennis lessons and exercise classes, and regular BMI readings to monitor the progress of participants. The K.Y.D.S. program utilizes the USDA’s evidence-based Team Nutrition curriculum which has activities for elementary, middle, and high school students.
Each year, Hebni will provide three eight-week cycles of Project Oasis and one eight-week cycle of K.Y.D.S. Take Charge! for Eatonville residents, serving an average of 78 people annually.
The goal of the program is to increase consumption of fruits and vegetables by participants, improve participants’ knowledge of healthy nutrition practices and for certain participants, to reduce BMIs upon completion of the program.
Hebni Nutrition Consultants is a community-based, not-for-profit agency formed in 1995 to educate high-risk, culturally diverse populations about nutrition strategies to prevent diet-related diseases. Hebni’s mission is to provide culturally appropriate nutrition education and intervention strategies to prevent diet-related diseases.
