This summer we passed the two-year anniversary of the start of the Client Choice in-person shopping at the Greece Ecumenical Food Shelf. It has been one year since our new process for deliveries began. These changes have dramatically increased our ability to provide a wider range of foods and improve the nutritional value of what we give to our clients. This is especially important for the children we serve.
Various studies have shown food preferences are established early in life through what parents and caregivers give to babies and toddlers to eat. Later, what a child eats is determined by what they see others eat and what they see advertised. That is why parental participation and modeling of good eating behaviors is so important. TV also plays a large role in what children want to eat, and it is often not a beneficial influencer.
One in three children in the United States is obese. Obesity in children leads not only to medical problems, but is associated with poor self-esteem and body image, depression, social isolation and eating disorders. Over- weight children face stigmatization as early as preschool. In school-age children it can lead to social rejection by their peers.
Increasing the availability of fresh foods, especially fruits and vegetables, to low socio-economic groups is key to preventing the development of poor eating habits. Carbohydrates are typically cheaper foods (bread, rice, pasta, potatoes) while high nutritional value foods are more expensive. Parents can’t model good eating habits if they struggle to put food on the table. It’s tough to maintain a healthy weight when your meals are heavy on the carbohydrates.
Over the past two years the Food Shelf has made great strides towards helping parents get children on the path to healthy eating. We hope this will have life-long impact on people in our community.
Information Provided by Greece Ecumenical Food Shelf
