Mindful Eating at the Kennedy School - Somerville Public Schools

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Phone: 617-629-5690 Website: Somerville.k12.ma.us/foodservice. Blog: SomervilleFarmtoSchool.blogspot.com. Twitter and In
Mindful Eating at the Kennedy School In order to digest your food properly, your body must be in parasympathetic mode, or in a state of non-stress. Kindergartners know this. Well, they might not know the scientific term yet, but during lunch they participate in 6 minutes of silence; a period they call "Mindful Eating". When asked why they like mindful eating, the children replied, because "it’s quiet”, “I can enjoy my food better”, “I get peace and quiet”, and "it’s calmly”. Kindergartener teacher Ms. Roxanne Scrima, and other John F. Kennedy School teachers, have been implementing mindfulness in the cafeteria and their classrooms since last year. They are proud to have a lunch period that looks and sounds quite different from the cafeteria rush other classes often experience. While the students sit silently at the lunch table checking in with their emotions, their digestive systems are also benefitting. Physiologically, only when our bodies are in rest mode can the brain trigger the release of digestive enzymes, which breakdown our food into absorbable nutrients. If we are constantly in a state of stress, our food will not be broken down properly, which can lead to digestive ailments and nutrient deficiencies. For more information about Mindful Eating visit eatingmindfully.com.

Devon Byrne

Favorite fruit Nectarines March National Nutrition Month: look for bulletin boards and fliers around your school March6, Local Monday: look for local fish on the menu! Begin early spring planting activities

Favorite vegetable Beets

Devon is the Food Literacy Educator. She is originally from Louisville, KY but her undeniable love for New England brought her to the Boston area in 2014. Before coming to SPS, she managed the Farmers' Market at Harvard for two seasons and helped run LexFarm's Learning Garden summer classes. Her favorite part of the job is the opportunity to empower young people to make healthy eating decisions through knowledge of growing their own food and advocating for local agriculture!

Somerville Food and Nutrition Services, 42 Cross St, Somerville MA 02145 Phone: 617-629-5690

Website: Somerville.k12.ma.us/foodservice

Blog: SomervilleFarmtoSchool.blogspot.com Twitter and Instagram: @svillefood4kids

Ssshhhh...the garden is sleeping After a busy garden season, our garden beds were ready for a much needed winter sleep. Starting as a snap pea bed and transitioning to a kale bed, the soil in our gardens had been working very hard. On a chilly day in late fall, students from the Winter Hill Innovation School’s Pre Kindergarten class helped to put the gardens to bed. The class prepared the bed by pulling out the kale plants, seeding Winter Rye and mulching the beds with salt marsh hay. The Winter Rye is a cover crop used to replenish the soil’s nutrients. The salt marsh hay also improves soil quality by adding much needed organic matter back to the soil. Earlier this season, the class seeded and transplanted sunflowers to help attract pollinators to the garden beds. At the end of the season, they harvested the seeds to make bird feeders and save for the next summer. According to the teacher, Ms. Amanda Saillant, the students are “very curious about the garden and love being outside.”

Recipe for Mindful Eating To eat mindfully is to eat with intention and attention. Put a raisin on a plate in front of you. Silently, pick it up and look at it closely. Examine the skin, it’s ridges and markings. Smell it. Does it smell sweet or sour? Finally, take a bite. How does it taste? What is the texture? How many times do you need to chew it before you are ready to swallow it? Could you do this for every bite at every meal? Here are a few more ideas for eating mindfully: • Eat with chopsticks. • Eat with your non-dominant hand. • Chew your food 30 to 50 times per bite. • Eat without TV, newspaper or computer. • Eat sitting down. • Put the proper portions of food on your plate and try to make the meal last at least 20 minutes.

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