Thirteen Bronx Teachers Bring Healthy Eating to Third Grade

Can students discover healthy eating while learning about ancient Egypt or crafting a witty opinion piece? Bronx Health REACH proves that teachers can absolutely integrate nutrition education into core curriculum by using one simple tool — DESIGN for Teachers. Last fall, four third grade lead teachers received a train the trainer session in December 2017 in the DESIGN for Teachers model with the intention of training and implementing four nutrition education lessons into core curriculum across all third grade classrooms.

DESIGN for Teachers is a model, developed by Marissa Burgermaster, PhD, MAEd, Pamela Koch, EdD, RD, and Isobel Contento, PhD. This model shows teachers how to integrate nutrition and food literacy into lessons that will engage students in the classroom and fuel children's motivation to eat healthier and live a more active lifestyle.

Through calling for a grade-wide commitment to implement four lessons integrating nutrition education and core curriculum, teachers in all four participating schools found their students looking forward to learning and genuinely disappointed if they missed a class. Teachers said the experience is something that they would definitely replicate next year because it wasn’t difficult to implement.

“There wasn’t much changed from the original curriculum, we were just using different resources and activities to implement the lesson,” said Alvin Lisojo, a third grade teacher at PS69 Journey Prep.

More than 80 percent of teachers completed all four lessons with the guidance and support of their grade lead teacher. The keys to grade leaders’ success was 1) a commitment from all third grade teachers to be active participants in the project, 2) implementing an effective professional development training on DESIGN for Teachers model targeted to their fellow teachers and creating four lessons that all four or five third grade teachers could easily implement, and 3) following up with each teacher to ensure all four lessons were implemented.

What surprised and inspired the teachers was how much excitement the lessons ignited in their students. Suddenly, students were talking about healthy eating among themselves. After Ms. Dina Zapatta, a third grade teacher at PS114 began teaching the nutrition education lessons, students would enter class boasting that they brought a healthy snack today or that they didn’t bring any red or blue flavored sodas or sports drinks, what Dina refers to as “red or blue death juice.” Allison Palmer, a third grade teacher at PS6, reported that having her students take a pledge as a class drive the students to bring healthier snacks and bring water bottles to class and encourage their classmates to do likewise. Dina noticed an increase in students drinking more milk and eating more yogurt after her class took a healthy eating pledge.

In each school, all the third grade teachers worked as a team to choose which core curriculum lessons would be integrated into nutrition education lessons – each school truly making the project their own. At PS69, Alvin integrated a discussion about how to make healthier choices into a lesson about Egypt. The class ate Egyptian food and discussed how they could eat the food they love and be healthy by using portion control and making healthier versions of traditional recipes. Parents praised Alvin for offering these new lessons. They reported that their children were requesting to make healthier versions of their family’s favorite dishes at home as well as inspiring them to give them healthier snacks.

“The kids were having great discussions about food and what their families ate at home,” said Alvin. “Many of the students became very animated and excited about this topic, especially those who are English as Second Language students. This topic really brought them out of their shells.”

Dina’s third grade teachers chose to focus on the MyPlate model. She asked her students to illustrate what they ate the night before. Then, she posted the pictures around the room and encouraged the students to walk around the room and compare their meals and those of their fellow students to the MyPlate model. The most eye opening part of the exercise was seeing the challenges families face in accessing healthy, affordable food.

The teachers’ biggest challenge was finding grade-appropriate reading passages to teach nutrition education. In response, Bronx Health REACH is working with Teacher’s College to provide a solution for teachers. Despite these challenges, all four groups will continue to use the four nutrition education lessons with next year’s third grade class.


A big thank you to the third grade teachers who took the lead on this project in their schools: Jennifer Large (PS1X The Courtlandt School), Alvin Lisojo (PS69 The Journey Prep School), Allison Palmer (PS6 West Farm School), and Dina Zapatta (PS114 Luis Lorrens Torres School).

Mt. Hope Staff Makes the Mt. Hope Health Center a Healthy Beverage Zone

When you enter the Institute for Family Health's Mt. Hope Family Practice you can now quench your thirst with a cup of delicious, fruit infused water as the Mt. Hope Family Practice is part of the Bronx Healthy Beverage Zone. The fruit infused water came about after the staff expressed an interest in changing their eating habits.

"We invited Bronx Health REACH staff member Kelly Moltzen and Cornell University Cooperative Extension-NYC to the Health Center to show us how we could manage our sugar intake," says Tanya Baker, staff administrator at Mt. Hope. "During this meeting they provided examples of various sugary beverages and under each container they placed a plastic pouch showing exactly how much sugar each one contained. We were shocked by the unhealthy amounts of sugar in each beverage. During this education session they taught us how to read the nutrition labels. With this newly acquired knowledge we decided to sign the pledge to stay away from sugary drinks."

Kelly, who also co-chairs the Bronx Healthy Beverage Zone initiative, provided Mt. Hope with a fruit-infusion water dispenser as part of the Creating Healthy Schools & Communities program's worksite wellness initiative. Mt. Hope introduced the fruit infused water to staff members and patients with the goal to decrease their sugar intake.

"The dispenser is put out every day in the patient waiting area for everyone to enjoy," adds Tanya. "Myself and the Medical Director are committed to drinking at least 64 ounces of water every day, and other staff members and patients have increased their consumption as well. We have patients and Mt. Hope staff filling their water bottles when they arrive and as they leave. The pineapple flavored fruit infused water seems to be the most popular as patients and staff always request it."

Staff share their enthusiasm about the fruit infused water:

“The infused water is so refreshing and in such a perfect location, patients and staff love it” - Krystina Baez, MOA

“Nothing better than walking in to the Mt. Hope Health Center on a hot summer day and seeing ice cold, refreshing fruit infused water. The staff and patients love it.” -Christina Burgos, MOA

“The infused water is amazing, especially the pineapple. It’s refreshing and quenches our thirst.” - Montrecia Frazier, MOA

“Ms. Baker, let’s keep this water going. The patients love it when they walk in thirsty from the outside.” - Karen Gil, MOA

“I am really enjoying the refreshing water they provide. I love it so much that it has encouraged me to do it at home as well.” - Affya Thompson, LPN

“Having the infused water here at Mt. Hope exposes patients to a great way of living.” - Dr. Amarilys Cortijo, Medical Director.

“It is exciting to see staff taking control of their health...Mount Hope is serving as a great example for what other worksites and health clinics can accomplish.”  - Kelly Moltzen, MPH, RD

Tanya Baker and Kelly Moltzen contributed to this article.

Second Tabernacle Church and Mt. Zion CME Come Together to Cook and Reclaim Health

Two Bronx Health REACH partner churches, Second Tabernacle Church and Mt. Zion CME are the second and third churches to complete the 6-session workshop series, ‘A Taste of African Heritage,’ from Oldways, a nonprofit food and nutrition education organization.  A Taste of African Heritage introduces participants to a delicious, plant-based diet high in flavor and low in cholesterol, saturated fat, sugar, and sodium. 14 participants cooked the recipes and learned about healthy ways of eating plant based foods.

Nellie Bryant from Second Tabernacle Church and Bronx Health REACH's Joseph Ellis were instrumental in getting both churches involved. 14 participants cooked together, enjoyed fellowship and learned to bring back the healthy "Old Ways" of eating.

"I had a great time teaching the Oldways African Heritage & Health Program," said Ivette Brown from Bodies By Brownie, who led the workshop. "The church members enjoyed being introduced to new alternative food options like millet, quinoa, and various spices. Fellowship was the most important component, and by cooking together we not only learned new ways to prepare healthy meals, but were able to connect with one another."

Ivette Brown, who led the 6-session workshop, contributed to this article.