BC Dairy is re-tooling its nutrition education program to offer teachers ProD workshops via Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Starting with Food Explorers for their youngest students, we offer teachers a number of workshops about how to help students learn about making healthy food choices,” said Sydney Massey, Director of Nutrition Education at BC Dairy. “Adapting our workshops to support home-based instruction required some innovation and hard work over the last two weeks, but the entire team was motivated by a sense of responsibility to do whatever we can to help out during this crisis, and we got it done.”
Since the 1970s a staff of registered dietitians at the association has put on in-person nutrition education programs for teachers across BC, giving them tools for the classroom and helping teach about healthy eating and food. They have built up an extensive catalogue of workshops, lesson plans, and materials.
They started offering teachers the option of taking workshops remotely via Zoom about a year ago, but had to extensively rework the content to focus on home-based rather than classroom learning.
Massey added that BC Dairy also offers lesson plans and other materials on numerous nutrition and food topics, which have been available for download online for several years. The association has seen a significant increase in downloads of the material over the last couple of weeks as teachers seek out resources for helping their students learn at home.
“Cooking is a natural in the home environment, something students can do independently or that parents can do with their children while at home,” she said. “The material extends readily into other areas like math, science, and cooperative skills. As one of the province’s largest agricultural sectors, BC’s dairy farmers have long felt a responsibility to bring educators resources supporting them in teaching healthy eating and nutrition.”
See the attached backgrounder (below) for more detailed information.
Any teachers interested in learning more or signing up for a workshop online can visit https://workshops.nutritioneducationbc.ca/virtual-workshops/.
In addition to retooling its nutrition education programs, BC Dairy has supported community efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic by donating $150,000 directly to Food Banks BC and coordinating a donation of 40,000 litres of milk to Food Banks BC and other groups distributing food to those in need at this time. BC Dairy is also partnering with local company AlooAtta to manufacture and distribute hand sanitizers and soap to help keep communities safe during Vaisakhi.
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