Nationally there is great concern over the childhood obesity epidemic. Our Big Island community is no exception to this trend. Further impacting our students’ health status and an indication of economic status is the fact that 47% are entitled to the federal free and assisted lunch program; and 40% of WMS students are part Hawaiian.
As proper nutrition is critical to long term health and academic
performance, Mala’ai collaborates with WMS’ Title 1 and 21st Century federal
grant programs to serve healthy snacks and drinking water to 150 students
three times a week during after-school tutoring. With the support of the
school’s not-for-profit board, Ho'okako'o Corp., Mala’ai provides
nutritional expertise and food community networking to guide healthy snack
preparation before standardized testing. 4,500 nourishing breakfast snacks
and drinking water have been provided for 527 WMS students during 9 days of
mandated NCLB testing. By using minimally processed and whole foods, we are
providing nourishment to our students while modeling healthy eating choices.
We believe that in many instances, the food served is some of the healthiest
that students will consume in any given day.
The student response to the snacks during testing has been enthusiasm and
gratitude. The like the food and they feel cared for.