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Show 1 4 Vernal Express Wednesday, October 18, 2000 Empires sikos Parents and grandparents eat lunch at school Community Calendar By Carol Jewart Express Feature Writer National School Lunch Program Week, Oct. 9-13, enticed numerous parents and grandparents to take time off work to join their students for lunch. The most popular reason for National School Lunch Program is for parents to see for themselves what their children are eating eat-ing at school. The cooking staff in the Uintah District schools are serving healthy and more appealing school meals while the kids learn to make food choices for a more nutritious diet. "School lunches at Maeser Elementary are among the best." said Dennis Atkin. principal at Maeser. "To commemorate National School Lunch week, we invited all parents, grandparents and younger brothers and sisters to come in and have lunch with their student. The students like to have their families come and eat with them. "After lunch we had a book fair set up so they could go and brouse through the books and maybe purchase one or two." On Oct. 13, 1996, President Clinton signed into law the week beginning the second sec-ond Sunday in October of each year to be "National School Lunch Week." This program, which began in 1946, is celebrating its 54th anniversary year with changes to reduce diet-related diseases and improve the health outlook for America's children. Wholesome, nutritious meals are not always the kids' first choice but they improve their ability to learn and brighten their health outlook for the future. (Natlschoollunch.org) "I wanted to take advantage of the program pro-gram and eat lunch with my son today," stated Austin's father. Jason Jorgensen. "I wanted to see for myself what kind of food the Maeser school serves. I don't think the Photo by Carol Jewart Rick and Donna Curtice, parents and Mae Patton, grandmother, have lunch withtheir son and grandson, Quincy Curtice, during dur-ing National School Lunch Week. SPARK program begins second year The SPARK (Sports, Play, Active Recreation for Kids) program is in its second sec-ond year at Todd Elementary, West Junior High (Ft. Duchesne) and Lapoint Elementary schools under the direction of Mike Brand, the fitness health educator for the Indian Health Service. The Indian Health Service and the Ute Tribe feel it's imperative to provide kids the opportunity . to exercise and be active. Since the Ute Tribe pays for the SPARK Program, the schools chosen are predominately Native American. "I worked with the Uintah School District and the Ute Tribe to bring SPARK here," said Brand. "There are some elementary schools that don't necessarily have a physical physi-cal education (PE) program and we feel it's important for kids to be active, burn calories calo-ries and reduce the risk of gaining weight. If they don't stay active, eventually, when they become adults, they can run the risk of disease associated with gaining weight." With younger kids, the first month of the program focuses on locomotor skills, which includes space and perceptual powers. This occurs with games such as walking, running, run-ning, jumping, hopping, galloping, skipping, skip-ping, side-sliding and leaping. Each day the kids will experience new lessons and each segment is designed to keep the kids moving mov-ing the entire time. n i ii n w ii i in ii i - n F t i.i K i f " if '- ' ' ' ' ' ' II .'. ;W ' . I A- M In celebration of National School Lunch food's bad at all and taking time off work to eat with Jason was well worth the time." School lunches not only offer students healthy, well-balanced meals. They include menu items such as pizza and tacos, sandwiches sand-wiches and spaghetti. All meals are consistently consis-tently low in cost and offer a variety of foods from each of the Five Food Groups. For older kids, the first month focused on skill development. This development comes with games such as aerobic frisbee and cooperative games such as roadway, truck driver, straddle' ball, memory ball, freeze ball, time bomb and moonball. Sponsored by The Northern Ute Tribe, Indian Health Service and The Uintah School District, SPARK is a state-of-the-art physical education program that was developed devel-oped by San Diego State University through a grant from the National Institute of Health. SPARK was developed as a counter to obesity and heart disease (the number one cause of death), which can begin in childhood. SPARK was designed to increase physical activity during class in ways that are creative and fun for both students stu-dents and teachers. In fact, after the first year, 95 of the teachers said they really liked SPARK and 95 of their kids really liked the imaginative program. SPARK is being conducted at Todd, Lapoint, Myton, and Neola as well as West Junior High (for 6th graders). Kids in grades kindergarten through 6th at each of the schools are benefiting from the SPARK program. "Children are never too young to start exercising and learn life-time wellness See SPARK on page 15 " ' J -V -!( - , v j, "ill. v - -.J , fr -r. 'crC V ""-I? S -r. ,,'' - ..-- - 1 - Program Week, Jason Jorgensen eats lunch "The goal of the food serv ice program is to provide students with nutritious foods that will enhance learning. We're really feeding their bodies and their minds," said Martha Hill, president of the American School Food Service Association. "I always come and have lunch with my grandson," said Mae Patton, grandmother . Ml - ... t : t . - i L Mercedes Bement, Shine Littleshield and Spring Dae Accawanna, 5th grade students stu-dents at Todd Elementary, participate in a frisbee throw. Photo by Carol Jewart with his sons, Jason and Chandler. : to Maeser first grader Quincy Curtice. "I think the food is very good." "We want to participate in anything that has to do with Quincey's well-being," said his mother. Donna Curtice. "We feel satisfied satis-fied that he is eating well." "I think it's good for parents to come in and eat lunch with their kids," Atkin said. "So if kids complain about the food the parents will know we serve the best lunches lunch-es possible. We have an excellent staff of cooks because the kids always tell me how much they like them. So whenever a kid comes up and says. 'Gee Mr. Atkin, lunch was good.' I always tell them 'go tell the cooks.' And the cooks love to hear it," Jeannie Anderson, head cook for 15 years at Maeser Elementary, explained "This event happens once a year in the fall and we have to cook more than twice as much food as usual. We don't really mind though because this way the parents can come and see what the kids eat every day. We make a lot of our food from scratch like our bread, cookies and cakes, but not everything. I love the kids. You get so attached to some and then they move on to the next school. But then new kids come in and we get attached to them, too." School meal programs are regulated by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and must meet Dietary Guidelines and recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) created by the USDA and the Department of Health and Human Services. 4V -7 "2 M -i; Y o V 1 t ' ' ! M , .m. a ' J 1 1 V i- 1 W October 18, 25 Oil painting classes will be held at the Golden Age Center every Wednesday at 1 p.m. Anyone interested needs to provide their own painting supplies. For more information call 789-2169. October 19 TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) meets at 11:30 a.m. every week at the Uintah Care Center Day Care room. For more information call Marcia at 789-2791 789-2791 or Minnie at 789-1064.. A Cub Scout Round Table for all Cub Scout leaders will be held at Glines Stake Center, next to the temple, at 7:30 p.m. October20 A community dance will be held at 155 S. 100 W. for all ages. Come and listen lis-ten to good music and dance from 8:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. October 21 Nine Stake Singles over 31 will host a picnic at Remember the Maine Park and hike to Petroglyphs in Dryfork Canyon. Lunch is provided and children are welcome. wel-come. In case of a complete downpour or blizzard it will be canceled For more information call Kathy at 78 1-6690. October 24 The Utah Music Teachers Association (UMTA), Vernal-Roosevelt Chapter, will hold its second mectin of the 20OO-2001 year at 7 p.m. in the Uintah High School Choral room. October 26 Dino-Sewers will hold a meeting at the University Extension Office, third floor of the Uintah County building, 152 E 100 N. from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Susan Kuntzler will be teaching cut-work and embroidery by sewing machine. For more information call Kathy Kitchen at 781-0440. 781-0440. A Halloween theme recital will be presented by students whose teachers are members of the UMTA Students are invited to perform Halloween or minor pieces and arrive in costume. For more information call Carla Cleavinger, 781-1548. 781-1548. October 29 A presentation of The Love Story of Joseph and Emma" by Buddy Youngreen, will be held at the Vernal 3th Ward LDS Chapel beginning at 7 p.m. The presentation presenta-tion is open to the public at no charge.. For more information' contact Dan Philpot at 781-6351. October 30 The Great Pumpkin Festival will be held at Jensen Park from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. For more information call 789-5511 November 1 Conquer your fear of public speaking or just improve the skills you have by attending the Uintah Basin's own Talk of the Town" Toastmasters Club. The next meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. in the county building, first floor break room or visit die web site at www.smg70.comtoastmastcrs. To place items of public Interest on the Community Calendar mail to Vernal Express, P.O. Box 1000, E-mail, editorvernal.com or call the Vernal Express at 789-3511. Materials are subject sub-ject 10 edit Deadline is Monday at 12 noon. s Poor |