On November 27th, we launched our Mom & Tot nutrition program. “Our mission is to provide marginalized women and youth tools to make positive life style choices and heal themselves and our community. Since we value dignity and respect for everyone, we take an innovative approach to educating our participants. There are some wonderful programs out there but ours has the interactive educational component to it.
The pumpkin carving concept of launching this program is one example of how we incorporate education and entertainment in all our programs. Everyone who attended our first session devoured the pumpkin soup and to figure out how we could meet the needs of the community we serve. We had our good meal bag program previously ran at transition homes. Dietician students led by Dietician Heather Lovelace would create a meal, serve it and discuss aspects of nutrition that could benefit each participants’ wellness. After the meal, participants were given the ingredients to recreate the same meal for up to six people.
To bring this program to Vancouver’s DTES, we needed to meet the needs of the participants. One of the key concerns were the lack of kitchen facilities; monies to purchase the ingredients and how to use nutrition for preventative health care. Through the different night’s meals – many that embrace different cultures and nutritional components are presented in a fun way to participants. By educating our participants to become engaged with our programming and actually using the information they learn, we believe it will create a healthy approach to food and life style choices; a great way for the women to bond with their children, break down generational barriers based on poor nutrition and make cooking healthy foods fun.
Beauty Night Society’s Mom & Tot Program Coordinators Alexa Fox and Christie Gray sat down with me to discuss how we could make this program fun and interactive.
Apapting a concept from Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youngsters (Hippy)’s literacy program – by teaching the children, it can strengthen the familly.
This program is great way to involve and engage the community. Little Flower Academy and Churchill Secondary School students’ Foods 12 class are creating recipes for us that can be cooked on hot plates or in a coffee maker. Students who are volunteering to do the research for Beauty Night Society’s Mom & Tot Nutrition Program are developing leadership skills and becoming empowered as the research they develop will have a direct positive impact on someone’s life.
