What's for lunch? September 12th 2011

Todays menu features Beef Chili, Brown Rice and Steamed Broccoli.

The beef that we use to prepare our meals is produced locally and grass fed, but what is grass fed beef?

Perhaps the most amazing aspect of grass farming is that the meat offers tremendously significant health benefits. Grass Fed Beef contains high levels of Omega 3’s—the fatty acids that can reduce cholesterol and fight heart disease. In contrast, grain-finished animals from feedlots are high in Omega 6’s—the fatty acids that can raise cholesterol levels. In addition, grass-finished beef offers 400 percent more vitamin A and E than commercial beef, and is rich in beta-carotene and conjugated linoleic acids, both major cancer inhibitors.

Most beef consumed in the US is “grain finished” at large-scale commercial feedlots. Grass-fed beef is raised and finished on an all-natural, grass diet, that results in animals that are much healthier. The cows never receive antibiotics, hormone implants or by-products, so there’s no risk of mad cow disease.

Bon Appetit!

ACA Aids Walk 5.15.11

The HCZ A Cut Above Students geared up for their participation in the 2011 Aids Walk on May 15th. The students committed to participate as they focus on Community Service. The morning brought a pouring rain and yet they were dedicated to walk for the cause!!!! Students walked through the doors at 8am with ponchos, hats and ipods ready to get moving. After breakfast the rain begin to slow down a bit which was great. The staff and students kept up the team momentum with cheers and chants as transition began. There were 33 middle school students and 8 staff representing the HCZ A Cut Above program. The rain was not a barrior...way to go ACA!!!!

Pak Choi

This graceful vegetable with Chinese origins has spread throughout Asia and beyond, developing a wide range of varieties. The most typical Pak Choi features dark green leaves atop white spoon-shaped upright stems. Stems vary considerably in thickness and shape, and in some varieties they are green. One variety produces a rosette of dark green leaves close to the ground. There are specialty pak chois that have frilly leaves to light yellow-green color. The slight mustardy flavor of Pak Choi makes it a delightful addition to stir-fries, soups, noodle and meat dishes, and salads, if the young leaves are used.

Health Benefits:
It is one of the rare vegetable that is very low in calories. However, it is very rich source of many vital phyto-nutrients, vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants.

Pak choi is very good source of vitamin K, provides about 38% of RDA levels. Vitamin-K has potential role in bone metabolism by promoting osteotrophic activity in bone cells. Therefore, enough vitamin K in the diet makes your bone stronger, healthier and delay osteoporosis. Further, vitamin-K also has established role in curing Alzheimer's disease patients by limiting neuronal damage in their brain.

Friday May 13th menu will feature this delicious vegetable. The pak choi was just picked by our farmer and delivered today.
Menu:
Teriyaki Fish, Sesame Pak Choi and Rice. Fresh baked Bread, Fresh Fruit and Soup Du Jour.

Enjoy.

Asthma Education

With higher childhood asthma rates in Harlem than in any other neighborhood in NYC, the Health Promotion Learning Lab is taking preventative measures by leading workshops on how to manage and control asthma. According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, New York ranks number three in the list of most challenging metropolitan areas to live in with asthma because of the abundance of asthma triggers. An asthma trigger is a thing or condition that can cause inflammation in the airways. How they affect people with asthma varies from person to person but can include cigarette smoke, air pollution, dust mites, cockroaches, and strong odors. It is important to keep your home, workplace, and school free of these triggers.

For the past two weeks the Health Promotion Learning Lab (HPLL) has been in UPK classrooms to teach young students about how their lungs work and what it means to have asthma. With the hands-on exploration of a lung and diaphragm model even the youngest students are able to visualize and internalize how lungs fill and deflate with every breath they take. By listening to their own breath sounds with stethoscopes, talking about asthma triggers, and stressing that exercise is the simplest and most effective way to care for lungs, students gain a tangible understanding of asthma and how to decrease the negative consequences related to asthma. The HPLL stresses that just as bodies need nutritious food to be healthy, lungs need exercise to be healthy. It is important for people with asthma to understand their own asthma symptoms and find an individual exercise plan that takes into account their own body needs. Asthma can be controlled and should not hold anyone back from taking part in the activities they enjoy!

HCZ participates in Revlon Walk

New York City if full of great opportunities that combine two important things: support important causes and participate in social exercise. This past Saturday, on April 30th, 2011, a group of Senior leaders from HCZ participated in the 14th Annual Revlon Run/Walk for Women.

These woman decided to do two important things this past Saturday morning and we celebrate their achievement and encourage you to follow their lead! They decided to join the fight against woman's cancers, at the same time as they were improving their own health.

Exercise is one of the most important ways to maintain good health. Add eating well and getting enough rest and you have a winning formula. Exercise not only helps reduce your risk of many diseases, it can reduce stress, and in this case can be a great way to connect with friends and colleagues. Making exercise fun is a great way to ensure that you fit it into your busy schedule.

So congrats to Team HCZ! Let's follow their lead.
Thank you all, Anne Williams-Isom

Food Field Trip: Family Life Academy Charter School

Chef Andrew and I took a field trip up to the South Bronx to visit Chef Bennett at Family Life Academy Charter School (FLACS). We'd heard that Chef Bennett had a commitment to serving freshly-made wholesome food in the school cafeteria and we wanted to peek in on his operation and see for ourselves.


Family Life Academy is a great example of a school community, like Promise Academy, that is taking wellness seriously and interested in feeding children a balanced, healthy diet that will set them up to succeed not just in the classroom, but well into adulthood. In February 2010, FLACS began to cook student meals on site as opposed to the regular practice of having frozen meals delivered to the school and then reheated.


FLACS also incorporates a science curriculum that offers new vocabulary and lessons about food’s biological impact on our bodies. The goal of the program is to help students have a healthy relationship with food. In addition to the food being served in the cafeteria, FLACS has several rooftop planters where students help grow vegetables and herbs and learn about the nature's natural recycling systems using worm bins and composting.


We were really impressed by the food service operation at Family Life Academy and wanted to share some of what we were most encouraged by from our visit:

• The food service staff was doing a great job of engaging the students in what was being served and on the day we visited kids were happily eating steamed kale and filling their own trays with items of their choosing from the salad bar
• The Teachers and Staff were helping in the cafeteria, monitoring the salad bar, encouraging the children to try the soup, maintaining order in a crowded lunchroom
• There was a genuine enthusiasm and an obvious interest from students and staff in creating a healthy school environment for the students at FLACS
• Just like Chef Andrew, Chef Bennett works hard to feed students a balanced diet and introduce them to a variety of cuisines, some of the most interesting menu items at the school were: Ropa Vieja, Miso Soup, Fish with Avocado Sauce and Root Vegetable Mash...who knows? Maybe you'll see some of these items showing up in our cafeteria!

It's always encouraging to learn and see how other people are transforming school lunch programs and supporting kids in eating for life. Way to go Chef Bennett and everyone at FLACS! Thanks for letting us come and visit and challenging us to create an even great community commitment to wellness here at HCZ.

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.

Welcome to HCZ's Wellness Connection

At HCZ Community Wellness and Health is one of our top priorities. We have a variety of programs that work in this arena including the Educated Eaters Program, the Children's Health Fund and the Healthy Living Initiative. Find out more about each of these programs by clicking on the tabs at the top of this page.

One of the toughest challenges facing our children is obesity. Over the past three decades, childhood obesity rates in America have tripled, and today, nearly one in three children in our country are overweight or obese. Childhood obesity contributes to adult health problems like diabetes, heart disease and hypertension.

We all want our children to achieve excellence—both in their schoolwork and their quality of life. The Harlem Children’s Zone is firmly committed to creating a healthy nutrition environment that supports and encourages an active lifestyle; we need help from staff, teachers, parents and students to cultivate a consistent message and reinforce healthy habits at HCZ. We tackle this important issue from a variety of fronts like serving healthier foods in the cafeteria, encouraging physical activity, and educating our community about the connection between nutrition and health.

At HCZ and Promise Academy, we are committed to:

1. Feed students a balanced healthy diet that is nutritious, delicious and sets them up to focus and succeed in their schoolwork and thrive in their lives.
2. Teach our community—by education and example—how to relate to food in a healthy way by improving nutrition education to staff, students and parents.
3. Encourage students and all members of our community to understand the relationship between healthy eating, an active lifestyle and their success—in and out of the classroom.

We are excited to get our entire community involved in our efforts to create a healthier environment and this blog is a way for us to all share in the vision and support this important goal. Thanks for visiting! Stop by again soon!