Healthy Victories October 2021
Celebrate Healthy Victories!
Champions for Change are real people just like you. Champions make good health a priority for themselves and their families by making small changes in their diet and daily physical activity. Visit Del Norte CalFresh Healthy Living website and learn more about nutrition and physical activity resources and healthful tips. Let's celebrate healthy victories that lead your families healthier and happier!
FARM TO PRESCHOOL
The Farm to Preschool Harvest of the Month curriculum is a research-based nutrition education curriculum designed for preschool-age children, age 3-5 in any child care setting such as Head Starts, preschools, and daycare, developed by the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute1. Farm to Preschool is a new way to teach ourselves, our children, and the children we care for where our food comes from and why gardening and locally grown is part of the good food movement for healthy families and a healthy environment. 

CalFresh Healthy Living Program works with educators in the early childhood setting, including Head Starts, state funded preschools, and child care providers through Child Care Council, and promotes seasonal and locally grown fruits and vegetables through the Farm to Preschool Harvest the Month program.

For October Harvest of the Month, we celebrated "cherry tomatoes" from the Seabreeze farm. We delivered a Harvest of the Month taste testing kit, including cherry tomatoes from the Seabreeze farm and educational materials-Farm to the Preschool Harvest of the Month curriculum and a storybook aligned with the Head Start learning standards. We also provide parent newsletters and other supporting educational materials to the teachers to implement the Farm to Preschool Harvest of the Month curriculum in their classroom and parent engagement activities to promote nutrition and physical activity, and gardening. Please check out our program website Healthy Eating and learn more about the Harvest of the Month and resources.
  1. Urban & Environmental Policy Institute. http://www.farmtopreschool.org/
Black Bean, Corn, and Tomato Salad

Ingredients
  • 6 Tablespoons Olive Oil
  • 1 teaspoon Dried Basil or Dried Oregano
  • 15 ounces Black Beans canned, drained, rinsed
  • 15 ounces Corn canned, drained
  • 14 1/2 ounces Tomatoes canned, drained
  • 1/2 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes optional, salt and pepper

Directions
  1. Put the olive oil and the basil or oregano in a bowl. Add the red pepper flakes if you are using them.
  2. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix gently with a fork; season with salt and pepper.
  3. Chill in the refrigerator if you want to serve it cold or serve at room temperature.

You can find this recipe and more healthy recipes and information at EatFresh.org
Cooking with Champion for Change, Saroj, "Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese"

Ingredients for tomato soup: 1 tsp minced ginger and garlic mix, 1 Tbsp butter, 1/2 cup chopped onions, 3 cups chopped fresh tomatoes, a pinch of salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning

Ingredients for grilled cheese sandwiches: Cracked wheat sourdough bread, sliced cheese of your choice, some butter

Direction
  1. Put butter on the pan, cook onions till golden brown, add ginger/garlic, add 1 1/2 cup vegetable broth, salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning, and cook until 15 minutes.
  2. While the soup is cooking, prepare the grilled cheese.
  3. Blend the soup and add more broth if needed, and enjoy!
Chef tip: You can use croutons instead of grilled cheese.
Meet our new Champion for Change,
Oren Selah
Champions for Change are also individuals who have overcome obstacles to secure good health for themselves and their family, and who can serve as role models for others in their community. Champions make good health a priority for themselves and their families and inspire others to make healthy changes for a better life. You, too, can become a Champion for Change by making small healthy changes and joining the movement! Thank you, Champions for Change, for sharing your stories and experiences, and skills with us! 

We are honored to work with the most outstanding leaders and Champions in our communities who walk the talk and model the changes they would like to see in our community, promoting healthy lifestyles. We are pleased to introduce a new Champion for Change, Oren Selah. He will be joining us for a Healthy Living Live at Lunch on November 1st at noon via Facebook Live to demonstrate Chair Yoga incorporating conscious breathing techniques. We are honored and excited to have you as our Champion for Change! 

Click Meet Our Champions to find out what other Champions have done across the state to help their family eat healthier and be more active every day.

Click Meet Your Local Champions to meet Del Norte Champions for Change to learn from their personal success stories and healthy lifestyle demonstrations.
If you like to learn more about the Champions for Change program and to become a Champion for Change, Contact Us
Physical Activity-Why It Matters
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), physical activity could prevent 1 in 10 premature deaths, 1 in 8 cases in breast cancer, 1 in 8 cases colorectal cancer, 1 in 12 cases of diabetes, 1 in 15 cases of heart diseases. 
About half of Americans have at least one chronic disease or more; only about half of Americans are getting recommended physical activity for chronic disease prevention and reduction. Furthermore, physical inactivity is associated with "177 billion dollars" in annual health care costs1.

Regular physical activities save lives and protect health and improve the quality of living. Additionally, physical activities benefit communities' safety, economy, and workforce. Building active and walkable communities can increase retail economic activity and employment levels and reduce health care costs. Walkable communities can improve safety for people who walk, ride bicycles, and drive. Physically active people tend to take fewer sick days. Let's move and be active every day for our healthy, family health, and communities' health. 

Physical activity is anything that gets your body moving. According to the 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, adults need to do two types of physical activity each week to improve their health-aerobics activity and muscle-strengthening activity2. For important health benefits, adults need at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity, 30 minutes a day, five days a week, that anything gets your heart beating faster, such as walking fast, riding a bike, and pushing a lawnmower. Adults also need to do muscle-strengthening activity that makes their muscles work harder than usual, at least two days each week. Tight on time this week? Start with just 5 minutes, and it all adds up! You can break it up into smaller checks of time during the day. 

There are many fun ways to get physical activity throughout your day, such as dancing to your favorite music, riding your bike and playing with your kids-tag, jumping rope, hiding and seeking, and planting and taking care of a fruit and vegetable garden. The shape of Yoga is a booklet of 10 essential yoga poses that encourage families to exercise together with Yoga, building muscles and bone strength and flexibility. 

Please Contact Us to request your copy of muscles-strengthening booklets for families, Shape of Yoga and Power Up In 10 Basic Exercise. You can also download your booklets and get more information on physical activity at our website, CalFresh Healthy Living

(1)Center for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC]. (2020). Physical Activity. Why It Matters. https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/about-physical-activity/why-it-matters.html
(2) Center for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC]. (2020). How much physical activity do adults need?. https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/adults/index.htm
Yoga is for everybody, and you can do it any time and anywhere. Our Champion for Change, Oren Selah, certified yoga instructor and a conscious breathing expert, demonstrates Chair Yoga poses from the Shape of Yoga incorporating conscious breathing. 
CalFresh Healthy Living Live at Lunch
CalFresh Healthy Living new program year began this month, October 2021 and goes till September 2022. Every three years, we select our program priorities and intervention sites and activities. We have focused on early childhood settings, working with Head Starts, preschools, and community organizations serving preschool-age children and families such as First 5 and Child Care Councils. We promote nutrition and physical activity, and sustainable changes in policy, system, and environment that encourage our children and families to eat healthier and be more physically active. Due to COVID-19, we had to modify our activities from in-person to online engagement methods using virtual platforms such as zoom or Facebook live.

Harvest of the Month Live at Lunch was one of our successful virtual events we launched last year. Social connection and support are important for our healthy living, especially in challenging times like this. We appreciate your participation and engagement through this social media platform. This month, we launched a "Healthy Living Live at Lunch" Facebook live, replacing the Harvest of the Month Live at Lunch, featuring nutrition, physical activity, and Rethink Your Drink/Hydration working with our local Champions for Change. Please join us for "Healthy Living Live at Lunch" on Mondays at noon via our Facebook page, 
Garden Coalition News
CalFresh Healthy Living has led and facilitated a Garden Coalition, a group of passionate people with shared values and vision in our communities, including garden experts, educators, advocates, and Master Gardeners in Del Norte, Humboldt, and Curry County. The purpose of the Garden Coalition is to inspire and empower our community to grow and eat better together. We network, share gardening resources and seek collaboration opportunities to promote gardening through education.

Since 2019, we have been successfully convened and promoted gardening through resource sharing and garden promotion and education. We held our strategic planning meetings this month to identify our priorities to promote school and community gardens for the next year. The identified strategies include school garden promotion through Photovoice garden video project led by 4th and 5th graders in afterschool programs, Seed to Supper, a basic vegetable gardening class series in Spring 2022, and a Summer family garden event, "Garden Coalition Passport" campaign and garden education and training videos.

Please Contact Us for more information about Garden Coalition, meeting time, agenda, Zoom meeting link, and check out our garden resources and videos led by our local garden experts in our website page, Locally Grown . Please check out Ask a Master Gardener, Zoom Gardening Hour with the panel of Humboldt and Del Norte Master Gardeners.
Join in the movement for a healthy change! You also can be a Champion for Change. Please nominate yourself or others who would like to become a Champion for Change and share your healthy victories with others! Let's make positive and healthy changes together!

Email to Sunny Baker, sbaker@co.del-norte.ca.us
Contact, 707-464-3191 X 2830
Funded by USDA SNAP, an equal
opportunity provider and employer.
Visit CalFreshHealthyLiving.org for
healthy tips.