public relations | Public affairs About Us Our Team Our Work Clients In The News contact
  Go Back To Home Page    
 
 
 
   

Kids Learn from the Pros How to Make Healthy Food Choices

  • Celebrity chef Lisa Dupar teams with Operation Frontline-Seattle to help low-income children prepare healthy, easy meals on a budget
  • Statistics show percentage of overweight children ages 6-11 has more than doubled during the last twenty years

SEATTLE – August 28, 2006

According to the U.S. Surgeon General, 40 percent of obese children and 70 percent of obese adolescents become obese adults. In addition, the percentage of overweight children ages 6-11 has more than doubled in the last twenty years.

Childhood obesity is on the rise. If kids are given the right tools and education to help develop healthy eating habits at a young age this cycle of undernourishment can be alleviated. Seattle-based Operation Frontline and local celebrity chef Lisa Dupar are teaming up on Monday, August 28th to help do just that.

This free six-week class, called Kids Up Front, is designed to teach children ages 8-12 the basics of nutrition, cooking and healthy eating.  The goal is to encourage at-risk kids to eat healthy, lost-cost food through hands on cooking and nutrition education activities based on the Food Guide Pyramid. 

“A little knowledge goes a long way for kids when it comes to healthy food choices,” said Lisa Dupar, chief creative officer of Redmond-based Lisa Dupar Catering and Pomegranate Bistro. “Kids have a natural excitement about being in the kitchen and helping parents cook. With little money a family can make healthy, tasty choices and we are trying to spark an interest in cooking healthy early on.”

Operation Frontline, a program of Share Our Strength and The Fremont Public Association, strives to provide short and long-term solutions to hunger by mobilizing volunteer chefs, nutritionists, and financial planners to teach people the nutrition, cooking, food budgeting, food safety, and financial planning skills that they need to make nutritious and wise food choices.

“The Kids Up Front class is unique because the children come back each week for two hours at a time to work with devoted volunteer chefs like Lisa Dupar, creating healthful meals and learning how to nourish their bodies,” said Erin Pankow, Operation Frontline’s Americorps*VISTA.

The last class of the series will be held Monday, August 28th, from 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. at Graham School, 5149 South Graham Street, Seattle, Wash. 98118. For more information, contact Brooke Phillips, Operation Frontline Supervisor at (206) 694- 6846 or visit www.fremontpublic.org/client/food/html.

BACK TO TOP