Michele Reynolds, Nutrition Program Education from the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Rensselaer County teaches Questar III students at Goff how to make healthy choices when it comes to nutrition.
Michele Reynolds’ baseball cap is decorated with plastic fruits and vegetable. Her t-shirt displays a hamburger and french fries with the caption “pardon my french.” Holding up a Hi-C “juice drink” box in her right hand and a Minute Maid 100 percent fruit juice box in the other, she asks students which one goes in a food group and which one is a “sometimes food?”
After six weeks of nutrition lessons with Reynolds, Nutrition Program Educator from Cornell Cooperative Extension of Rensselaer County, the students in Questar III’s Achieving Individual Milestones (AIM) program located in Goff Middle School can easily identify the Minute Maid as a fruit.
“Always look for the ’100-percent juice,’” she tells them.
Other lessons included information on the benefits of vegetables and fruits, whole grains, different kinds of fats, sugary drinks and the importance of exercise. At the conclusion of each session, students help prepare a snack. This week’s snack was low-fat frozen yogurt topped with strawberries and bananas – a healthy sundae.
“I’m here to educate people about eating healthy so that they can make smart choices on their own,” said Reynolds. “Kids need to be educated, but I’m not here to say “don’t ever eat that.”
According to teacher Sarah Knights, Reynolds’ lessons tie in nicely with the information she teaches students all year long.
“It’s a great extension of the healthy cooking and eating skills we teach them,” said Knights. “Michele comes in and the kids can now visualize the information and we can refer back to her lessons when she’s not here as well.”
