Eating Sugar Cubes

Moving kids from fat to fit

This school year, in a little patch of yard beside a set of mobile classrooms at Southern View Elementary School, students and their teachers are hoping to find a few new flavors. As a way to teach students about health and wellness, the District 186 school is building a garden in a sunny spot that last spring surprised passers-by with a few bright red wild strawberries. “It’s fertile,” Southern View principal Jonnell Baskett says about the patch of grass that is to become the school’s vegetable garden, which is meant to broaden students’ food horizons. If students can take ownership of the garden, they’ll be more inclined to try the fresh fruits and vegetables they grow, educators hope. And once they try the healthy foods – which some students are not exposed to in convenience-driven homes – students will ask their parents to purchase them instead of sweet and salty treats with little to no nutritious value. The genH Coalition (“Generation Healthy”) formed about three years ago in response to the nation’s growing childhood obesity rate that advocates say will eventually threaten everything from the economy to national defense. The coalition is run on the energy of Dr. Kemia Sarraf, about two dozen dedicated volunteers and the work of its anchor partners – St. John’s Hospital, Lincoln Land Community College, Sangamon County Medical Society Alliance, District 186 and the Illinois Department of Public Health, to name just a few. As an umbrella organization, genH facilitates networking and cooperation among organizations independently committed to health and wellness and works to educate schools, families and the general public about the benefits of proper nutrition and physical activity. With one paid staff member – executive director Brandy Moore Grove, whose $20,000 salary is paid for by a gift from the St. John’s Foundation – genH’s initiatives, from health fairs to cooking demonstrations, are made possible through grants and donations of time and money from individuals and businesses. “What I have seen since I moved here, and continue to see, is that Illinois is ranked number four in the country with regards to the percentage of our children who are either overweight or obese – number four,” says Sarraf, genH founder and president, the mother of four and a board-certified internist.

AN ABANDONED MILITARY BASE… ON ACID! - Viceland Today

Gulp. I didn’t realize people actually did that.

After hiding for a while, it became apparent that the people weren’t going anywhere, so we decided to try to stealthily make our way back to the car. I’m not sure if it was the acid or if Rich is just naturally nimble, but he somehow managed to move twice as fast as all of us without making any sound. There was one time where, despite the fact that he had been right next to me, I managed to lose him. I found him crouched behind a tree, wide-eyed and going “shhhhh!” Just as we were approaching the exit, two cars pulled in. We all hid in the bushes, where Rich accidentally sat on his flashlight and turned it on (which is exactly what caused all those problems in Jurassic Park ).