Live.Life.Healthy Students Celebrate International Food Revolution Day

On May 19^th, Live Life Healthy (LLH) students and LLH Club members at Winter Park High School (WPHS) participated in their 4^th Annual Food Revolution Day. Guided by the belief that “access to good, fresh, nutritious food is every child’s human right,” internationally renowned chef Jamie Oliver started the Food Revolution movement to address important issues around food. These include:

• Food education – creating a greater understanding of food systems in order to make more responsible, healthy and sustainable food choices;
• Nutrition – understanding how food and proper nutrition are connected so children can grow up healthy;
• Food waste – teaching individuals to value their food and manage waste better;
• Health of the planet (sustainable, healthy food systems) – understanding how food, the environment and people are all linked together to create a planet that can produce quality food now and into the future;
• Cooking – knowing how to cook from scratch using fresh, nutritious ingredients as a vital life skill; and,
• Ethical buying of food and food products – purchasing food that has been produced and sourced responsibly with care taken for the environment, animals and people.

Chef Oliver’s mission is to “inspire real, meaningful, positive change in the way our children access, consume and understand food.”

At WPHS, LLH students use the momentum of Food Revolution Day to educate their fellow students, faculty and staff on these issues during the school’s lunch hour. This year, LLH students and Club members created stations including:

• A produce give-away using locally grown produce from Long & Scott Farms in Apopka along with “Farm to School” recipes handpicked by the students for use with the produce;
• A grilling station with chicken and vegetable kabobs, corn, veggie patties and organic beef patties;
• A mobile quick kitchen that showed students how to easily prepare their grilled options into a healthy meal;
• The benefits of fruit infused water – students were able to select fruit to create their own blend of fruit water;
• Tips on how to pack a healthy lunch;
• A salad bar with a variety of fresh vegetables;
• A “taste the real rainbow” station with colorful fruits and vegetables along with health facts;
• Healthy no-bake desserts; and,
• A yogurt smoothie station detailing the health benefits of yogurt.

Also, back by popular demand was the hamster wheel in which students must run to create their own crushed ice!

Approximately 450 students, faculty and staff attended the 4^th annual Food Revolution Day.