It’s hardly a secret, but at LIFT enrichment, we’re big believers in healthy eating and teaching kids how to cook. If kids get their diet right, they can get their lives right too. Healthy kids become happy adults. And that’s why we teach 17,000 kids to cook each week in afterschool cooking programs!
But are we correct?
Do afterschool cooking programs really make a difference? Is there even a problem in the first place?
These are the questions answered in a recent report by the Afterschool Alliance (AA), titled “Building Healthy Habits and Healthy Futures: How Afterschool Programs are Supporting Physical Activity and Healthy Eating.”
The State of Kids’ Health
How healthy are our children, exactly? According to the studies cited by the AA, on average, not very. 1 in 5 kids in the US is obese, which isn’t really surprising, given that less than 30% of 6-17 year-olds are getting the recommended amount of exercise while eating more sodium, sugar, and saturated fat than recommended.
Sadly, childhood obesity seems to be getting worse, too. As a 2019 report in Global Pediatric Health summarized, “In the past 3 decades, the prevalence of childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents.”
What makes this particularly alarming?
Diet and exercise habits we form as kids typically stay with us as adults. What will happen if we don’t teach our children how to live and eat healthily? They may never do so.
Who’s hit hardest
Poor diets and sedentary lifestyles are widespread issues, but low-income families are hit the worst.
Why? Because they’re less likely to have access to parks, affordable healthy food, and recreational centers while living in neighborhoods perceived to be less safe.
Also, children from low-income families are twice as likely to live in “food insecure” households, and if you don’t have cooking skills? It’s far cheaper to eat junk food than it is to eat healthy.
Why are kids today less healthy and less active than previous generations?
Multiple reasons, changing diets being a biggie. But as the Afterschool Alliance points out, one factor has had a huge impact in the last two decades:
Screens.
The recommended daily screen time, outside of school or work, is 2 hours. But according to the National Center for Health Statistics, half of adolescents aged 12-17 are getting 4+ hours of screen time a day.
That’s 28 hours a week – a part-time job!
Needless to say, this isn’t great for kids’ health. Sitting in front of screens, it’s easy to mindlessly graze on high-calorie junk food, and obviously, physical activity plummets. Citing a 2011 systematic review, the Afterschool Alliance points out that screen time is associated with decreased fruit and vegetable consumption and an increased consumption of fast food, fried foods, and high-calorie snacks and drinks.
Why this matters
Unhealthy kids aren’t usually happy kids. They’re rarely successful kids either.
As we’ve pointed out before, unhealthy eating habits (and not exercising) can lead to nutritional deficiencies and poor classroom performance.
A simple solution for healthier habits
But it’s not all doom and gloom. Sure, it’s harder to eat healthy with financial constraints and modern technology, but as the AA report says, there’s an easy (and cost-effective) solution:
Afterschool programs.
Young people can spend up to 15 hours per week in afterschool programs, so these programs can play a huge role in shaping kids’ attitudes towards healthy diets and exercise. And this is exactly what we see from the numbers. From a 2024 survey, 84% of afterschool programs are providing snacks or meals, and 80% get kids doing some type of physical activity.
We’re biased of course, but one type of afterschool program is particularly effective for changing the way kids think about food:
Afterschool cooking programs.
How afterschool cooking programs build healthy habits for life
The Afterschool Alliance looked at survey results given to 3rd – 8th graders and their parents before and after attending afterschool nutrition programs. The results showed that kids’ consumption of vegetables, their nutritional knowledge and cooking skills all improved. That’s not particularly surprising, of course.
But what might be surprising is that kids and their parents reported having conversations about healthy food more frequently, even 6 months after the program finished.
This echoes what we hear from parents, kids and teachers with our own afterschool cooking programs. As Susie Strangis, counselor at Hyde Park Elementary told us,
“The students loved it! They’re excited to try new foods, and it’s helping them build healthy habits early on. This experience has taught them the skills they need to make healthier food choices and understand the importance of nutrition.”
Wondering what an afterschool cooking program would look like in your school, along with how to get government grants to fund it
Click the link below to book a free call with one of our team.
Previous Newsletters: