Thanks to a grant from the South Central Community Foundation, the Macksville City Library was able to provide  Healthy Programming to many of Macksville’s youngest students.  And, with the help of Terri Renfro’s high school Nutrition class, the students learned about healthy eating in a fun way. 🙂 

Guided by Mrs. Renfro, seven high school students (pictured above) put on skits, led games, and helped put on a taste-testing activity for students in grades Pre-K through First grade.  The SCCF grant allowed us to purchase foods for tasting, cuties, bottled water, and a sturdy, sectioned My-Plate for each student to take home.

The brave students tasted strawberries, grapes, kiwis, carrots, cucumbers, and sugar snap peas and recorded their preferences accordingly.  Many exclamations of: “This is AWESOME!” and “I love it!” outweighed the ‘sour’ faces of displeasure & refusal to try new things.  The plates helped illustrate that half of our plates (whatever our age!) should be fruits & vegetables.  And, we reiterated the fact that taste buds change… we need to keep trying new things as we may grow to like  foods over time and/or with new ways of cooking or presenting them.

This was a wonderful experience & a fun way to work with high school students, as well.  Thanks especially to Lane Sebes & BreAnn Anschutz, our local representatives to YMAD (Youth Making a Difference).  They work closely with Maggie Southard from SCCF  and, along with other YMAD reps, helped choose our grant proposal as one deserving of funding. 

The mission statement of our library includes the goal of “providing services for the education and enjoyment of the community.”  This program truly met that goal.