After having my own child; nutrition has become very important to me. I also work for Head Start, and part of our program is promoting good nutrition. I have saw the effects of poor nutrition on how children interact in the classroom, and regularly help families to become more aware of what they feed their children.
Child Nutrition Programs in Chile
The child nutrition programs in Chile are among the best in the world. The program is administered by the government and implemented by privite contractors. Chile's child nutrition programs have improved the nutrition in the nation and has increased school participation rate to nearly 100 percent. This program is not only for school aged children, but also serve infants and toddlers in government run free child care centers. Government support and public-private partnerships are credited with the programs' success (Winch, 2009)
"We realized education is the base of everything. So by having students with better nutrition, we will assure that students perform better. That is why the school feeding program is so central to us." -Ramón Solís Cácares—Chief of the School Feeding Department, JUNAEB (Winch, 2009, p. 12).
How This Will Impact my Future Work
Proper nutrition is important for all children, and in the future I will work to provide more information on proper nutrition as well as ways to provide nutritious food for families in poverty.
References
Winch, R. (2009). International Approaches to School Feeding: Country Experiences from Mali, Chile, and India. Global Child Nutrition. Retrieved From http://www.gcnf.org/library/International-Approaches-to-School-Feeding.pdf
I agree on proper nutrition, and that is cool how in chile they seem to make it a national thing. They see the importants of feeding children. I believe each childcare center should have a program that helps feed children out side the daycare sitting also.
ReplyDeleteThere are government programs that provide food for children and adults in day care facilities. You can find more information on it at http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/Care/CACFP/aboutcacfp.htm. At the school I work at there are many children who qualify for free or reduced breakfast and lunch programs, as well as a program that sends food home for weekends and vacations. I do think that our programs have a long way to go. How is serving chocolate milk and Fruit Loops a healthy meal at school?
ReplyDeleteI agree totally Caroline that school lunches need to be better regulated. Nutrition is not sugar loaded and artificial. It is real whole foods prepared in healthy ways.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post. I like that you linked good nutrition will success in school. It is easy to forget that we need certain foods, certain nutrients every day. Teaching kids about this is so important!
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