Created: 03/22/2012 08:03:05 AM PDT
Woodland Montessori elementary students have been awarded $2,000 in grants to help their fellow classmates eat more fruit.
They won a $1,000 UnitedHealth HEROES Grant from Youth Service America and UnitedHealth Group and $1,000 from California 4-H Revolution of Responsibility, according to a news release from Marcel Horowitz with UC Cooperative Extension.
This project teaches their classmates how to eat healthier by adding more fruit to their school day. The funding provides weekly deliveries of fresh organic fruit to the children's school, where students can snack on apples, oranges, pears and mangos when they get hungry.
"These grants were extremely competitive, and this project exemplifies service-learning and the UnitedHealth HEROES program," said Steve Culbertson, president and CEO of Youth Service America. "Young people in Woodland want to make a difference, and UnitedHealth Group, in conjunction with YSA, offers them resources to make a positive, measurable impact on their community."
The second grant was awarded by the California 4-H program. 4-H is the nation's largest youth development program, helping children learn leadership, citizenship and life skills.
"Improving the health of children is a priority for 4-H, and this youth-directed community service project is a wonderful way to do it. The awardees learn new skills while addressing community needs," said Horowitz, 4-H youth development and nutrition advisor from the UC Cooperative Extension.
These children identified the problem, wrote the grants and are managing the budgets and implementing the project. They have developed and conducted evaluations. Their research shows that the number of students snacking on fruit during the school day has increased by 86 percent.