WPHS Live.Life.Healthy Students Celebrate Food Revolution Day

On Friday, May 19, Live.Life.Healthy (LLH) students, both those in marketing classes and in the student club, held their fifth annual Food Revolution Day at Winter Park High School. Food Revolution Day is an international event spearheaded by renowned chef and food activist Jaime Oliver. According to the Food Revolution webpage, the global movement is designed to “provoke debate and inspire real, meaningful, positive change in the way our children access, consume and understand food.” Whereas the LLH Health Fair is an annual event to kick off a new school year to emphasize the importance of healthy living, Food Revolution Day closes out the school year with energy, important information and resources for students to keep in mind over the summer. The event engages students from all demographics and interests, and attracted around 450 students during lunch on the main WPHS campus.

LLH students sought guidance from the Food Revolution website in terms of key focus areas of the day, including food education, nutrition, food waste and cooking. Once the areas were determined, LLH students decided on twelve stations and researched their topics thoroughly. Stations for this year included:

• How much sugar is hiding in your food?
• Components of a healthy breakfast
• Farmer’s market with fresh, in-season produce and recipes
• Lowering food waste
• Eating the real rainbow (a variety of colorful fresh fruits and vegetables)
• How to pack a healthier lunch
• Smoothie station
• Grill station
• Importance of whole grains
• Healthy salad bar
• Importance of physical activity
• Hamster Wheel (back by popular demand, a giant wheel in which students can crush ice for a flavored ice by running!)

By holding visible, campus wide events like Food Revolution Day, LLH students are helping to create a culture of health and wellbeing among their peers. From day one their mission has been to show students that it can be easy, affordable and quick to create healthy snacks, meals and drinks. They routinely post healthy recipes, and health and wellness tips such as the importance of sleep and stress management, on LLH social media channels. Bridging those social media posts with dynamic, engaging campus events is a strategy proving to be effective.

The LLH initiative was founded in collaboration with Winter Park Health Foundation (WPHF) over five years ago.  WPHF provides grant support and technical assistance, but the students – guided by Meg Pietkiewicz, marketing teacher and faculty advisor – plan and implement all activities and awareness campaigns to promote healthy living among their peers.