Nutrition Lesson Kickoff!

Our efforts to educate youth about nutritional health were prospectively successful, last week, at our first Campus Kitchen Nutrition Lesson of 2007. Volunteers from Campus Kitchen at GCHS joined Brian Larkin in an Introduction Class about the Importance of Eating Healthy at Meadow Green Courts summer program. Our team presented both old and new food pyramids while also revealing the important differences between the two. The lesson included information about the five food groups: starches, vegetables, fruits, dairy, and protein, and how much of each is appropriate to eat.

To increase awareness about the rising obesity problem in America, our team discussed the possible risks and dangers of obesity. At the conclusion of the lesson everyone enjoyed a tasty, but healthy snack made personally by our CKGCHS volunteers. Did someone say Trail Mix!?



The snack is very easy to make and was a big hit for all the students and volunteers. Everything included in the trail mix can be purchased at a super market for around $20.00.

Ingredients:
Cinnamon Life
Unsalted Roasted Peanuts
Sunflower Kernels
Dried Bananas
Milk Chocolate Chips
Raisins

The different groups represented in our trail mix were then identified by the students from Meadow Green Courts. CKGCHS will continue to present lessons throughout the summer addressing important topics about food, exercise and nutritional health. Teach, Reach, Feed Lead!

Submitted by: Melissa Flores TFAS :IPVS Intern.

Coca Cola: to enjoy? Or not to enjoy… that IS the question

Hello to everyone out there! My name is Melissa Flores, and I am the new intern here at Campus Kitchen at Gonzaga College High School. I am totally excited about helping out this summer. As part of our Nutrition Lessons we will be putting on for Meadow Green Courts (they host a summer program for kids), we wanted to share a fun but shocking demonstration with all of you out there reading our blogs! Today, we bring you: “Coca Cola: to enjoy? Or not to enjoy… that IS the question”

Brian Larkin, Coordinator of CKGCHS, will happily drop his penny in a glass of coke…




The next day, Brian retrieves the penny from the depths of the coke... to our surprise, and dismay... the penny was clean and shiny! The acid from the coke removed all the penny's impurities. Imagine what that does to your body!?




So, the moral of the story folks, is, coke: although extra tasty and satisfying, is actually acidic enough to clean grime off hard substances... and therefore is probably not safe for you to drink in excess amounts.. Drink water instead!
Marty reexamines his beverage choices, (as we all should):



This preveiw lesson will appear in our series of Nutritional Education Lessons this summer at the Meadow Green Courts. We will dicuss how eating fast food can affect our bodies, and how eating fast food in excess, can be harmful to one's health. Please stay tuned for more lessons on our blog!

Submitted by: Melissa Flores: TFAS:IPVS Intern

CKGCHS Volunteer Appreciation Day

Since the May 15 post the leadership team at Gonzaga thought it fitting to celebrate the efforts of the noble men here at Gonzaga who have committed at least ten hours of their time to CKGCHS. We had quite a few guys who satisfied the requirement and so an ice cream social was deemed appropriate for such outstanding volunteers. What better way of having an ice cream social than with vanilla and Neapolitan ice cream plus toppings galore and Brian Larkin. And so the leadership team decided May 16 would be the best time to have this afternoon of laughs and ice cream.

To get the ball rolling Neil, a member of the leadership team, suggested the use of contacting volunteers via the internet. To follow up on his suggestion I decided to set up a Facebook event group inviting all the men who satisfied the requirement for the ice cream social. By setting up the Facebook event I was able to find out relatively quickly those who could attend and those who could not attend. I felt considering all of us are guilty of checking our Facebook accounts multiple times a day setting up this Facebook event would be easy and reliable. Well aside from that great plug-in for Facebook the ice cream social turned out to be a blast with about 12 volunteers showing up and brightening our day at CKGCHS.

An afternoon of hanging out and shooting the breeze was certainly a good choice considering many of the seniors had begun to wrap up their final chapter of school. An event like this turned out to be a great way to thank the volunteers and bond a little more outside the business of cooking and delivering the incredible meals these men help make and deliver to our clients.

The line up.
Not forgetting we are a Kitchen the toppings must get their thank you for being so awesomely sweet. A big thank you goes out to the cherries, chocolate syrup, chocolate and mixed sprinkles, whip cream, and the always incredible waffle bowl. That's right in the leadership team's debate on whether to use waffle cones or plastic bowls we made a compromise and bought waffle bowls. The waffle bowl had several key factors that made it a winner for us at CKGCHS. Among the factors that make the waffle bowl incredible are its sweetness, the cool waffle pattern, and the fact that it is bio-degradable unlike the plastic bowls.

- Michael Christian, CKGCHS intern