Todays Menu - 2/17/12

Today we are serving Jerk Fish, Braised Collards and Coconut Rice. Please join us. Bon Appetit!

Coconut milk is extracted by grating mature coconuts and squeezing them by using cheesecloth or both bare hands.

Following are some of the health benefits of coconut milk:

1.Helps to maintain blood sugar places:
Glucose intolerance may cause manganese deficiency in your body. Coconut milk is a rich source of manganese. Whole grains, legumes and nuts are some excellent sources of manganese.

2.Aids in building strong bones:
Coconut milk is not rich in calcium, but it is rich in phosphorus. Phosphorus is an essential nutrient that body needs for strengthening bones. It is must to take phosphorus with calcium particularly to prevent bone loss because it supplies phosphate to the body.

3.Relaxes muscles and nerves:
Whenever you feel muscle cramps or muscle soreness, have some food along with coconut milk. It is rich in magnesium and can help you in relieving the problem. One of the functions of magnesium is it acts as a gate block in many nerve cells. If magnesium is not present in body, nerve cells become very active because of calcium that activates nerves. Excess contraction of muscles is caused by over active nerve cells.

4.Helps in Controlling Weight:
This can be a good news for people who are trying to reduce weight. Coconut milk makes you feel full very quickly because of high concentrations of dietary fiber.

5.Helps in lowering high blood pressure:
People who are concerned with their blood pressure will not face any problem for reaching the foods containing potassium. Potassium helps in lowering blood pressure levels in the body.

Coconut Milk and Lactose Intolerance
If you have lactose intolerance, the easiest way to manage your symptoms is to avoid foods with lactose, such as any products made with milk that comes from animals. Coconut milk is free of lactose, meaning that you may consume coconut milk if you are lactose intolerant, according to the DairyFreeLiving website. Although you can substitute coconut milk for animal milk in recipes, coconut milk has a different taste and consistency than animal-derived milk, so it may not be ideal for some recipes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Everybody's got questions! Perhaps you want to know:
"What guides the food served at HCZ?"
"What is a healthy nutrition environment?"
"What menu options exist in the cafeteria?"

Look no further than our recently updated FAQ Page. Simply click on the question and it takes you to the full answer, often providing additional links to more resources.

Our FAQ list reflects the inquiries that we hear most often from students, parents, and staff members when we're talking to them about the food and nutrition environment at the Harlem Children's Zone. It's constantly evolving and being updated and we're happy to add new questions and answers. Do you have a question that isn't on the FAQ page? Post it as a comment and we'll do our best to answer it promptly.

News from the Armory

Do you love to dance? Do you want to get into shape while doing something you love? Are you ready to dance yourself into shape? If you answered yes to any of these questions then ZUMBA is for you!

The Harlem Children's Zone Healthy Living Initiative, in partnership with the New York Road Runners Foundation, is pleased to announce that they will be offering adult Zumba classes at the HCZ 369th Harlem Armory. Zumba classes will workout your muscles and burn calories with fun, easy to follow, Latin-inspired dance movements.

Classes will be held every Wednesday starting June 1st and ending on August 24th.
For the month of June classes will be from 7:30pm – 8:30pm. For July and August, classes will be from 6:00pm-7:00pm. All classes will be held at the HCZ 369th Harlem Armory, 40 West 143rd Street between Lenox Avenue And Fifth Avenue.

If you have any questions, please call Shaka Kinard at 212-281-5431 or e-mail hli@hcz.org.

How to Navigate An American Grocery Store

One of the issues we run into again and again in our community and in our own lives is the struggle for access to healthy, whole foods that are fresh and affordable. New York City recently identified East Harlem as one of the most severe "food deserts" in our city. According to the New York City Department of City Planning, a food desert is a term used to describe "communities characterized by not enough supermarkets and too many health problems. Within those dense, urban areas, the study estimated that 750,000 people live more than five blocks from a grocery or supermarket."


We know there is room for improvement in our community's food scene and we're excited about helping to encourage and support it. We are in the process of working with the city and our High School Student Wellness Council to Adopt-A-Bodega around the corner from our main building. And we've been busy working with our adult groups too--from parents to staff--to educate them about healthful, affordable ways to maximize their food budget in our evening cooking classes. 


This video, featuring well-known food journalist Michael Pollan, describes how even the modern American supermarket (if you're lucky enough to have a good one in your neighborhood) is designed to market you all kinds of food products you don't need, before offering you the basics like milk and eggs. Watch and learn and then the next time you're walking along 125th, ask yourself "how can I help encourage my community to create and support a healthier nutrition environment?" even beyond HCZ and Promise Academy.


One final note, we recently updated our Frequently Asked Questions page to include more complete answers and better information to some of the most common questions we hear from students, staff, and parents. Please check it out and we'd love to know what you think!

Parent Cooking Class Spring Sign-Up

Calling all parents! We are currently doing sign-ups for our next Parent Cooking Class. The Free 10 Week Class is offered to all Promise Academy Parents and starts April 27th. Classes are held every Wednesday night from 6-8pm for 10 weeks. Executive Chef Andrew Benson will walk you through cooking basics covering everything from:

1. Food Safety
2. Knife Skills
3. Simple Classic Kitchen Techniques, including healthy cooking techniques like how to:
1. Saute
2. Roast
3. Blanche
4. Grill
4. Basics of preparing Healthy Foods, including:
1. Whole Grains
2. Lean Meats
3. Fruits and Vegetables
4. Beans & Legumes
5. Fast, easy recipes for fresh family meals

Learn how to take your weeknight routine to the next level and improve your family's mealtime habits...plus have fun and gain skills to show off to your friends and family!

To sign up or ask questions please email Zoila Del-Villar 

Photo used under Creative Commons via Flickr.com user ReneS

Make a Commitment to Wellness!

With your help, our community can change the alarming national trends towards lower life expectancy and obesity for the next generation that the modern American diet and an inactive lifestyle contributes to. We strive to teach our community how to eat for life: to set our children up to thrive and live their best life. We want to help  you develop a healthy relationship to food and an active lifestyle. And we need you to support HCZ's healthy nutrition environment.

Be A Positive Example

Adult members of the Harlem Children's Zone and Promise Academy communities set an example for our children. Whether you are a teacher, a parent or a member of the staff you help our kids learn to recognize food as fuel for their growing bodies and active minds. You can also help us teach the next generation of Harlem's children healthy ways to celebrate their own food traditions as a unique expression of family and culture while modeling what kinds of foods they should be seeking out and piling on their plates. Click to read more about HCZ's Wellness Policy and our Community Food Pledges.

Eat for Life

The basics of a healthy balanced diet are simple, but not always easy to satisfy. Essentially our bodies need a variety of fruits and vegetables, whole grains and lean proteins to function well. Our bodies also do best when we are active--for kids that means at least 60 minutes of active play a day! We've got lots of opportunities to get active around HCZ for parents, staff and students to take advantage of.

Create Change

Too much of the food that is readily available in Harlem and across the country is heavily processed and full of excessive salt, sugar and chemical additives. Whether you call it fast food or junk food the additives can cause high blood pressure, interfere with mental focus, cause mood swings, interrupt our natural sleep cycles and even contribute to our risk of cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. We encourage you to fill your diet with more "whole foods" that are minimally processed and free of all the junk that's snuck its way into the typical American diet.

Simple, not easy

We recognize that changing your diet (especially as an adult) is not an easy task. That's why we're committed to helping you any way we can. Please let us know if you have specific needs or questions about eating well or feeding your family healthfully and we'll do our best to serve your specific needs. In the meantime, check out some of the excellent resources available around the web to help you eat better, get more activity and get involved with movements for creating positive change in our food systems locally and nationally.

Please visit our Wellness Resources to link to some of our favorite sites, groups and tools about healthy eating, living well, and making positive changes for yourself, your kids and your community.

How can Parents help support a healthy nutrition environment?

Here are some simple ways you as parents can help us:

1.     Set an example by eating healthy foods with your kids.

2.     Make mealtime a fun regular family activity.

3.     Encourage your children to be adventurous eaters.

4.     Respect the rule that students are not allowed to eat outside food at HCZ. We celebrate all birthdays monthly with a special treat in the cafeteria!

5.     Do not use food as a punishment or a reward; instead help children develop a healthy relationship to food as fuel for their growing bodies and minds.

Throughout the school year we are going to be providing you with more tips and resources—like recipes for simple healthy meals—to help make your job easier. Please let us know if you have specific questions or needs that you would like our Food Team to address. Our children are our future. Let’s help give them the healthy habits they need to live a long and active life.

FAQ: What guides the food served in our cafeteria?

The food served in the Promise Academy Cafeteria meets or exceeds the USDA’s Dietary Recommendations for student’s daily nutritional needs. In addition to meeting federal mandates, the food we serve reflects our philosophy that fresh, minimally processed, locally sourced foods are both better tasting and better for you. More than 90% of the food served in our cafeterias is made from scratch. Our hormone-free milk is sourced from a local dairy. The all-natural chicken and beef we serve is also sourced locally. Most of our produce comes from farms in the New York region.

Our cafeteria feeds children a healthy, balanced diet and strives to expose them to new foods inspired by culinary traditions from around the world. We do this through a weekly rotating menu, nutrition education, and healthy cooking classes. We are also in the process of listening more to our students and staff and working to get them engaged in the menu planning and development process.

We were encouraged to see that the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans focuses on balancing calories with physical activity, and encourages Americans to consume more healthy foods like vegetables, fruits, whole grains, fat-free and low-fat dairy products, and seafood. As a community, we've made a commitment  (along with much of New York City) to serve No Sugary Beverages. In addition, our school is a junk-food-free-zone in which we encourage kids to learn healthy habits and eat less sodium, saturated and trans fats, added sugars, and refined grains.

You can check out the full 8-week Menu Cycle here.