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Category: Fitness, Health, Happiness

Making a Difference: the Fresh Air Fund

Nature introduces children to the idea….
they are not alone in the world.
-Edward Hoffman

The Fresh Air Fund is looking for host families for next summer.

Host families range in size, ethnicity and background, but share the desire to open their hearts and homes to give city children an experience they will never forget. Hosts say the Fresh Air experience is as enriching for their own families, as it is for the inner-city children. There are no financial requirements for hosting a child. Volunteers may request the age-group and gender of the Fresh Air youngster they would like to host.

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Fresh Air children are boys and girls, six to 18 years old, who live in New York City. Children on first-time visits are six to 12 years old and stay for either one or two weeks. Youngsters who are re-invited by the same family may continue with The Fund through age 18, and many enjoy longer summertime visits, year after year. A visit to the home of a warm and loving volunteer host family can make all the difference in the world to an inner-city child. All it takes to create lifelong memories is laughing in the sunshine and making new friends.

The majority of Fresh Air children are from low-income communities. These are often families without the resources to send their children on summer vacations. Most inner-city youngsters grow up in towering apartment buildings without large, open, outdoor play spaces. Concrete playgrounds cannot replace the freedom of running barefoot through the grass or riding bikes down country lanes.

What a wonderful way to make an impact on a child’s life.

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A recent survey suggests that when kids have more opportunities for meaningful experiences outdoors, they become more likely to value nature, engage with it, and feel empowered to do something about it.

There are plenty of studies pointing to the health benefits of nature time and outdoor play. So much so, that doctors are writing nature prescriptions.

But what keeps popping up in my brain is:

What a wonderful way to enrich the life of your own child.

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If you think you might be able to be a host family next summer, click here for more deets.

If you know someone else who might be a good fit, tell them about the Fresh Air Fund website.

Or make a donation.

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Now watch this video and tell me if I’m the only sap who teared up a little bit. Go ahead, I can take it.

And if you’ve had any experience with the Fresh Air Fund I would love to hear about it!

September 30, 2011
Fast Food Restaurants: Why Not Give Out Healthy Meal Toys?

photo credit: puuikibeach on flickr

As a child my family’s menu consisted of two choices:

take it or leave it.

-Buddy Hackett

Bans on including toys with fast-food kids’ meals have been passed in San Francisco and are being considered in other places— most notably New York.

I whole-heartedly support these bans, which has people accusing me of being the Fun Miser and sucking all the joy out of childhood. Adults, mind. Parents. My kids don’t seem to care a whole lot, probably because fast food is a treat in and of itself for them.

I think that part of the problem is a nostalgia thing. We had better quality items to choose from, and there was a much stronger collectible element. I mean, really, I know some people who STILL have those toys and glasses from our childhood.

Look. I don’t like bribing my kids with (crappy, cheap, plastic) toys (that just create clutter and aren’t much fun anyways) to eat crappy food. You know? “No, you can’t have this super-villian whose arm hilariously goes up and down when you push a button until you finish your chicken nuggets and ALL your fries.”

A recent study tested whether the kid-centric appeal of collectable toys would sway little ones to choose healthy meal options… and guess what? A bribe’s a bribe, it works both ways. The kids in question were of that picky-eating, difficult-to-reason-with age group of 2 through 5, and

“the inclusion of a collectible toy influences the children’s perceptions of how the food is going to taste, and whether they will like it,” said Cornwell, a professor of marketing in the University of Oregon Lundquist College of Business. “What was interesting to us — even more than we expected — was that the presence of the collectible toy moved the healthier food option up to the point that it was just as likable as the fast-food offering.”

Huh! OK.

Brief related story. We went to Disney World last summer and while we didn’t opt for the dining plan, we did have Maverick and Cass ordering from the kids’ menu. On day 3, Mav basically had a meltdown in the French restaurant we were ordering in, in Epcot. Why? Because Mav is our resident foodie, and he’d been uncomplainingly subsisting on the kid offerings of: chicken fingers, spaghetti with red sauce (Mav prefers a little butter, garlic & Parmesan), mac and cheese that looks suspiciously like it came out of a box, hot dog, cheeseburger or cheese pizza. Served on the same Mickey Mouse plate, with vanilla ice cream for dessert, in every place we ate. And he correctly, justifiably cracked, wailing, “Why would I want a cheeseburger in a French restaurant?”

Why indeed. (And lords-a-mercy, I still feel guilty. I’m sorry Maverick! Next time I’m being completely oblivious PLEASE tell me right away!) If ever there was a place that’s perfectly positioned to encourage kids to try new things, I would think it would be the most magical place on earth, right?

It seems to me like fast food restaurants, and Walt Disney World for sure, have a wonderful opportunity here. Why not shift your business model and offer truly healthy foods that aren’t bland and boring, and incentivize kids to eat them by offering collectible toys along with them?

I mean, you offer salads and whatnot to the adults, right? You want to be seen as having healthy options?

Do you have any idea how much happier that would make parents? The guilt that would lift?

It would only work if you take away the crap meals, of course, because any kid is still going to opt for those if it’s available. If a parent really wants to treat their kid to a cheeseburger they can just order off the adult menu.

But then people like me wouldn’t be so rabidly anti-fast food. And people who eat fast-food regularly wouldn’t be potentially condemning their kids to a childhood of being teased for being overweight and an adulthood of being treated for weight-related health issues.

73 percent of the participating parents reported that they would be OK with such an approach, whereas, 92 percent were strongly against the use of collectible toys with traditional, less-healthy fast-food meals.

What say you, fast food?

How about you?
Where do you stand on the whole toys-with-meals issue?

September 26, 2011
Free App for Healthy Eating: Munch 5 a Day to Keep the Doctor Away

The doctor of the future will give no medication,
but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame,
diet
and in the cause and prevention of disease.

– Thomas A Edison

Here’s a cute way to motivate your kids to get their daily recommended intake of fruits & veggies in.

The Munch 5-a-Day app is a free iPhone app (also available for iPad) launched by social well-being company MeYou Health. Basically, you set your goals for crunching on the good stuff, and whenever you eat a serving you simply tap on a vegetable or fruit (and are rewarded with a satisfying chomping sound and accompanying graphic).

Kids then earn silly badges like the “Talking Tomato” for munching their way to a nutritious diet. So far, I’ve unlocked the Avocado of Enthusiasm, which would be an awesome name for a band (just sayin’).

The app has helpful information about serving sizes for both adults and children, and you can adjust your goal as high as a dozen a day if you want to make the goal a team effort. You can also post your progress to the Facebook or the Twitter if you are so inclined.

Down-on-the-farm background noises earn bonus points for cuteness, in my opinion, but I readily appreciate the option to turn the sounds off.

Remember, the habits you instill in your kids will shape their future eating practices. Are you setting a standard to live by, or an example to be overcome?

Be honest, now:

Do you get your five a day? Do your kids?

September 19, 2011