Frisco ISD has once again won the Medical City Children’s Hospital Kids Teaching Kids 21-day Challenge Award in an annual contest pitting Frisco ISD against a nearby school district. This year FISD defeated Lewisville ISD in the contest.
Ryan Eason, Community Outreach Manager for HCA North Texas, brought the award to the May PTA Council meeting, along with several small trophies for individual FISD elementary campuses.
Eason congratulated the PTA, campus principals, nurses and physical education teachers for encouraging students and their families to participate in a 21-day healthy eating challenge.
Frisco ISD culinary students from Centennial High School participated in creating snacks that went into the annual 21-Day Challenge recipe book, FISD graphic design student Rachel Goodman designed the cover of the North Texas Recipe Book for the challenge and individual staff members from FISD schools were honored for their superb support of the program.
Eason noted that what began six years ago in Frisco ISD has grown to include many North Texas school districts. He praised the PTA and District.
“You are making a difference in North Texas and hopefully a difference that will eventually spread across Texas,” Eason said.
The 21-day challenge in Frisco ISD urges families to make changes for that time period and has them reduce the number of chips, cookies and soda they consume and use the recipe book for healthy snack options.
In Frisco ISD, pre challenge only 48.1 percent of the students involved ate fruits and vegetables 5-7 days a week. Post-challenge that number increased to 60.8 percent.
Just fewer than 10,000 students in Frisco ISD participated. The numbers of participants have quadrupled in three years, Eason said. Frisco ISD data shows that 72.1 percent of District students tried a new fruit or vegetable during the program.
Students who participated in creating snack concepts in the 2016 recipe book, Sedra Jamal, Jude Jamal, Bryce Voss, Skylar Darrell, and Ellen Mason, were on hand with their teacher Sheila Hooten at the PTA council meeting.
Plans for the next healthy recipe snacks are already underway. Four teams from the Frisco ISD Career and Technology Education Center Culinary Department presented four child-friendly healthy options this month for a group of judges. The judges’ comments and the nutritional content of the recipes will be used for the final recipe book selection.
Jill Elliott, registered dietitian nutritionist with Medical City Children’s Hospital, and Sheila Gardner, FISD’s Director of Coordinated School Health, were on hand to see the tasty treats. They asked questions about measurements, caloric content, etc. Without giving away the student’s recipes, readers can know that the snack ingredients included simple healthy foods such as rice cakes, whole wheat bagels, fruits, kale, low-fat yogurts, low-fat whipped cream, hummus and fresh chopped vegetables.
Next year’s goal? Continue to win the trophy and have even more FISD families adopt a healthy eating lifestyle.