Summer Meals Kickoff at Boys & Girls Club of Vista
June 13th, 2018
A dozen lucky kids attending summer day camp at the Boys & Girls Club of Vista helped kickoff the Summer Meals program yesterday. Hosted by Vista Unified School District and funded by the USDA, Summer Meals provides free lunch for all children 18 years and under during summer break (no forms or paperwork required!). At the kickoff event, kids participated in a blind taste test, spun the Rethink Your Drink wheel, played trivia, and, of course, learned about nutrition!
Erika Hernandez and Usman Akram ask kids to “Rethink Your Drink”.
Rethink Your Drink
Erika Hernandez, NEOP Specialist for San Diego County, and intern Usman Akram brought the fun game Rethink Your Drink. Volunteers spun the wheel to learn about the different amounts of sugar in popular drinks. From soda and energy drinks to sports drinks and even vitamin water, there’s a shocking amount of sugar in each! Even worse, most of these drinks have more than one serving in a bottle, which means kids are drinking double those amounts of sugar if they finish the drink by themselves.
Do you know how much sugar is in your favorite drink? Quite a lot!
The best way to quench your thirst, especially in summer, is with water. Erika reminded the kids that fruit-infused water is a great way to add flavor to water without adding sugar. Simply add pieces of your favorite fruits (and even vegetables) to a pitcher of water for a refreshing drink. Erika and Usman will pop in at other summer meal sites, giving more kids the opportunity to spin the wheel and rethink their drink.
Erika shows how much sugar is in a sports drink.
Blind Taste Test
Next up, brave volunteers were blindfolded and asked to try different fruits. Jamie Phillips, Director of Nutrition Services, and Amy Haessly, Nutrition Education & Training Supervisor, asked the kids to guess what they were tasting.
Kids got to taste a variety of fresh cut fruits during the blind taste test.
Fruits included pineapple, cherry tomatoes, peaches, kiwis, blueberries, watermelon, and avocado. The kids each took a piece of fruit and used their senses of smell and taste to guess what it was.
Jamie Phillips gives pieces of fruit to kids for the blind taste test.
They were great guessers, getting it right whether they liked it or didn’t like it! After the blindfolds came off, the whole group got to snack on the leftover fruits.
Amy Haessly gives pieces of cut fruit to kids for the blind taste test (everyone got the extras!).
Fruit and Veggie Trivia
The final activity was a trivia game based on unusual fruit and vegetable facts. All questions were multiple choice and covered things like the size of the largest watermelon, the first food grown in space, and whether carrots give you night vision (350 pounds, potatoes, false).
Kids answered trivia questions about fruits and veggies and won prize packages.
Kids received prize packages that included a WaveCrest Cafe cookbook, pencils, and bookmarks. Erika and Usman passed around a few reusable water bottles and frisbees, too, and each participant went home with something from the day.
Everyone won a prize package, including a WaveCrest Cafe cookbook, pencils, and more!
After these activities it was time for lunch! Students lined up in the courtyard for their summer meals, taking refuge from the sun under big umbrellas. It was superhero theme week and a few kids were dressed up like their favorite characters.
Kids enjoying lunch under a big umbrella at the Boys & Girls Club of Vista
Take a look at our Facebook photo album for more action shots! And don’t forget to follow WaveCrest Cafe and the Boys & Girls Club of Vista on Facebook.