Children Will Produce Television Cooking Show
By Paul Gingras

Children at St. Ignace, Cedarville, and Gros Cap schools will soon begin producing a cooking show that will be available to area schools on the Internet and perhaps on a public access cable channel. The show will promote good nutrition and exercise as a way to combat obesity.

Mary Pemble-Swiderski, nutrition educator with Michigan State University Extension in St. Ignace, is coordinating the project, which will teach the children to cook and highlight healthy food preparation and food safety.

"The kids are very excited," she said of the program, which will be called the Food, Fun, Fitness Children's TV Show.

On each show, six to eight children, six to 12 years old, will help Mrs. Pemble-Swiderski prepare healthy meals.

Taping begins at LaSalle High School February 26 and will continue through August.

Children will help select the menus and work with the scripts, which will be written by Mrs. Pemble-Swiderski, and directed and edited by her nephew, Josh LaJoice.

She said the show will encourage children to incorporate healthy cooking into their lives.

The programs are to begin with a musical ditty about hand washing, proceed to the preparation of a clean cooking area, and then the menu will be explained. Children at several stations will be working on different portions of each meal, as Mrs. Pemble-Swiderski explains how to prepare a them.

"I will do most of the talking, the kids will do most of the cooking," she said.

The closing portion of each show will demonstrate physical activities, such as jumping rope.

Programs will be arranged to enable children at home to cook along with the children on television.

The first program will feature tacos made of healthy ingredients. Children will prepare homemade taco shells. The meat will be ground turkey, rather than ground beef, and seasonings will be selected to avoid unhealthy additives like excessive sodium.

The meals on the show will be based strictly on the My Pyramid food guide recommended by the United States Department of Agriculture.

Each show will demonstrate how to make a meal using grains, vegetables, fruits, dairy products, meat, fats, oils, and sweets. In addition to tacos, children on the first program will prepare a fruit salad with yogurt topping.

The second show will also train families to make a healthy meal from commodity foods offered by the USDA to low-income families. These include canned goods and dried milk, Mrs. Pemble-Swiderski said.

Another feature will demonstrate appropriate portions of food, she said, to help people curb excessive consumption. Americans tend to eat more than necessary, and child obesity is common. She believes teaching kids what is healthy to eat, as well as how much, should help.

Children who are overweight have a greater potential to develop health problems that can include diabetes, high cholesterol, and hypertension.

She plans to challenge people to increase consumption of vegetables, grain, and low-fat dairy products. She has noted that most children do not eat enough fruits and vegetables. People should eat about 2.5 cups of vegetables and two cups of fruit a day, she said.

The first group to be involved will be the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians Youth Education and Activities program, and members of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians Tribal Youth Council. Their shows will be taped February 26 and March 4.

Les Cheneaux Community Schools students will be in April and May shows.

Gros Cap School students will be in March and April shows.

Students in St. Ignace Area Schools summer program will be in shows taped throughout June, July, and August.

The project is funded with a $10,000 grant obtained through the Mackinac County Community Wellness Coalition.