Written by Fay Davis and Sanjana Nanduru
Introduction:
Munch Matters, an organization founded by high school juniors Sanjana Nanduru and Fay Davis works to promote food positivity for children at an early age. We realize it is imperative for the youth to be introduced to the importance of food because the extent of how well you maintain a balanced diet affects your overall growth.
By hosting nutrition courses/programs at libraries and schools, we create exciting presentations that engage children to teach them the significance of food and how to maintain a balanced diet from an early age. The activities provided after each presentation serves as sort of a ‘feedback’ opportunity for us presenters to know how well the children have understood what we try to convey to them. From this, we modify each presentation to better our way of making our presentations more engaging and interesting, so the children are excited to learn more about nutrition.
Jersey City Public Library Experience:
We hosted our first five week nutrition course at the Jersey City Public Library Main Branch located on Jersey Avenue. Our experience during these five weeks was an insightful experience not only for the children we presented to, but us as well. As this was our first program, we learned a lot from presenting and came up with a variety of ways to make our presentation more interesting for the children, as well as for us.
We provided the children with fruit cups and healthy snacks as an incentive for their interest and created an interactive ‘small group’ environment with parents in the back. We absolutely loved this experience and had an over-capacity of children every week making this a successful program.
Future Plans:
Munch Matters is looking forward to expanding its reach and impact in the community. We are planning to partner with more libraries and schools in Jersey City and beyond, to offer our nutrition courses to a wider audience of children and parents. We are also developing new and improved presentations and activities, based on the feedback we received from our previous programs. Our goal is to make learning about food and health fun and engaging for everyone.
We hope to inspire more children to adopt healthy eating habits and lifestyles, and to share their knowledge with their families and friends. Munch Matters is grateful for the support and enthusiasm we have received so far, and we are excited to continue our journey of promoting food positivity for children.