Everyday Heroes - January 2013

Everyday Hero - Lucille Beseler MS, RD, LD, CDE (Florida)

I provided RDs to add a healthy eating component to the Stella Migration project. This project did not have a budget for RDs but I wanted to include something on healthy eating, so I agreed to mobilize RDs from Florida to go to some of the schools that Stella was visiting. Florida Blue came to me with a request for educational material. I thought this was a great venture to team the Wyland Foundation, Florida Blue with Kids Eat Right. Utilizing Kids Eat Right materials, the RDs gave a presentation on the importance of good eating and eating a healthy breakfast while comparing the children’s nutrition to Stella’s nutrition.

The kids love it and we have introduced Registered Dietitians to a whole different group of individuals. The Wyland Foundation and the Harbor Branch Oceanographic folks now know about RDs and the Kids Eat Right program. This was a perfect partnership – we supplied RDs and in turn the Kids Eat Right logo was seen on Stella murals, and the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Clean Water mobile learning center all across the state of Florida. This was a fun and super project. It was thrilling to see the Kids Eat Right Logo with other prominent groups. Read more about Stella’s Migration!

Everyday Hero - Allison Childress MS, RD, LD, CI-CPT (Texas)

As a Healthy Snacking mini-grantee, I truly loved the opportunity to present to student athletes! Our audience was high school cheerleaders, grades 9-12. I am an instructor at Texas Tech University and had the opportunity to have two of my senior level nutrition students help deliver the presentations, plan the snacks and answer questions. Not only did the athletes learn from this presentation but our future dietitians had the opportunity to practice their skills before entering an internship! Thank you again for this opportunity and I look forward to applying for another mini-grant again soon!

Everyday Hero - Susan Doyle, RD, CD, CNSC (Wisconsin)

I partnered with the wellness committee at the hospital to give three presentations to adult athletes using the healthy snacking toolkit. I was impressed with the content of the PowerPoint and afterwards, many of the participants commented on how much they learned. I even used a couple of the fueling tips the following week in preparation for a 10K run. I am thankful to the Academy for providing the opportunity to promote healthy eating.

Everyday Hero - Iowa Dietetics Association Board of Directors (Iowa)

As a result of the State Affiliate Kids Eat Right challenge, the Iowa Dietetics Association was awarded $1,000 to help promote Kids Eat Right. They used the award to offer 10 $100 mini-grants to RDs to utilize the Healthy Breakfast toolkit presentation in their communities. The recipients of the grants included: Elizabeth Pohlman, RD, LD, Katie Jackson, RD, LD, Sydney Jacobson, RD, LD, Anne Hytrek, MSEd, RD, LD, CDE, Denise Boozell, RD, LD, Julie Gieseman, RD, LD, CDE, Christine Vaughan, RD, LD, Jodi Schweiger, RD, LD, CDE, and Anne Blocker, RD, LD. Special note! Anne Blocker was featured in her local newspaper for her efforts.

Everyday Hero - Cary Kreutzer, MPH, RD (California)

Thank you Kids Eat Right! I work as a Nutrition Consultant one day a week at a Los Angeles County Head Start site. The program serves families that are very culturally diverse. With the support of multi-lingual Head Start staff and Children’s Hospital LA Dietetic Interns, we were able to present to an audience in Spanish, Mandarin/Cantonese and Vietnamese. We presented one session on healthy snacks and the other addressing the importance of family mealtime. The parents took photos with their phone of the foods that were served so they could replicate at home. The Chartwells Kids Eat Right mini-grant funding enabled us to purchase food to use in our presentation which made the delivery of the nutrition message even more powerful.
Pictured: Ana Cardenas, MS (DI), Cary Kreutzer, MPH, RD and Anet Piridzhanyan, MS (DI)

Everyday Hero - Angela Lemond, RD, CSP, LD (Texas)

We had a great turnout at Sparks Elementary in Frisco, Texas where we spread the Kids Eat Right message to local parents and families. Our table featured solutions for dinner dilemmas and we handed out the 10 no-recipe handout from the Family Champions toolkit along with other materials.

Everyday Hero - Kathryn MacLean – Texas State Dietetic Intern (Texas)

I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to participate in the Chartwells Kids Eat Right Mini-Grant program. I was able to spread the word about healthy snacking to Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd graders during my time as an intern with the Hays School District in Kyle, Texas. It was such a joy to be able to interact with the students in such a fun way!

Everyday Hero - Andrea Potashnick, MS, RD, LDN (Illinois)

I had a wonderful time presenting the Healthy Breakfast and Healthy Snacking toolkits through the Chartwells mini-grant to elementary school-aged children in Chicago Public Schools. The students had fun with the worksheets and loved making a healthy snack. The teacher greatly appreciated the handout for parents. Thank you for making these toolkits available so we can help spread the healthy living message!

Everyday Hero - Courtney P. Winston, MPH, RD, LD, CDE (North Carolina)

Receiving the Kids Eat Right Healthy Snacking for Teen Athletes Grant gave me the opportunity to reach out to adolescent athletes in a school district in Pittsboro, NC. Not only were the coaches excited about having a dietitian speak directly to their players about pre- and post-competition nutrition, but the athletes also enjoyed the presentation and asked a myriad of questions pertaining to healthy eating in general. Several of the teens even mentioned they had family members with diabetes and said they wanted to take the healthy snacking information back to them. The presentation was a great experience for me as it helped me build rapport with the coaches and players, and I hope to reach out to them again in the future.