Published June 6, 2017
Here at Gourmet Gorilla we believe education is an important component of health and nutrition. Healthy habits, and conversely unhealthy ones, are learned in childhood. With this fact in mind, Gourmet Gorilla has been offering classes for local students, to teach them all about both nutrition and sustainable farming practices and empower them to make healthy choices in their own lives.
Johnny Sudekum, our Sourcing Specialist and Samantha Sullivan ,our staff Dietitian, have been at the helm of this classroom initiative and recently travelled to Polaris Charter School to share their expertise. Johnny, who led the children in an activity about the benefits and pitfalls of certain farming practices believes that offering these classes allow students to view nutrition in a new way; “We are able to show these kids that people are very passionate about these topics. There are people who have dedicated their lives to studying nutrition, and promoting sustainable farming, and making students aware of that shows them just how important these things are”. By making children aware of the different farming options available, and the implications of each one, we hope children and their families will take time to consider the impact that their food choices have not only on themselves, but also the environment.
All too often children replicate unhealthy habits they see in their households, our Dietitian Samantha stressed the importance of changing those habits; “Kids grow up without learning about the importance of nutrition, and then they pass along poor habits to their children and so on. It becomes a cycle, one that we hope we can help break.” Samantha hopes that by giving children critical information about healthy diets at a young age, we can help lower health risks for them in the future; “Last week the students were asking about diabetes, they were unaware that their diets now could affect their healths so strongly”. Samantha often hears children voicing beliefs that their fast metabolisms means they can eat what they want and not have to worry, because their weights is not affected. “They aren’t aware of the other implications,” she said. With these classes, we hope to change children’s views on their diets, and make them more conscious of their food choices. Gourmet Gorilla is dedicated to ensuring that we not only provide healthy meals to children, but that we give them the tools they need to continue to make healthy choices well into adulthood.
– Alyssa Black, Customer Service Specialist
