Fight Child Malnutrition in Rural Guatemala

When Sandy leads nutrition trainings in schools, she often focuses on childhood nutrition: what kids need to eat to grow up healthy and strong. But she is also invested in helping students’ parents and grandparents stay healthy. That’s why the second workshop she developed for the summer 2019 project cycle focuses on nutrition tips for adults of all ages. Sandy will lead this lesson for participating students and their mothers, who will bring their new knowledge home to share with adult loved ones.

“The human body is vulnerable in different ways at different times in our lives,” Sandy explains. “We can protect our bodies and keep healthy by eating nutritious foods.” Sandy’s next workshop will provide nutrition recommendations for adults of three distinct age groups: 20-40 years old, 40-50 years old, and older than 50.

When it comes to adults under 40, Sandy says, there is something of a divide in today’s Santiago Atitlán. Some younger adults continue to do the daily physical labor that their families have done for centuries, like cutting firewood and harvesting crops. However, today’s younger adults are doing more and more sedentary work.

Sandy wants to impart that for those who do hard physical labor, it is important to provide the body with consistent energy and hydration. She recommends eating five times throughout the day and snacking on fruits—their high water content is a great way to stay hydrated! For those who spend a lot of the day sitting down, she recommends getting some exercise a few times a week and avoiding highly processed foods. “Exercise doesn’t have to be in a gym,” she says, “but even walking is good for your body, and it’s important that your children learn this healthy habit, too.”

What about middle-aged adults? When we reach our 40s, Sandy says, we need to eat plenty of fiber-rich foods like fruits, vegetables, and legumes that provide consistent energy and promote good digestive health. Middle-aged adults also need plenty of calcium to strengthen their bones and should keep on exercising and drinking plenty of water.

Older adults should steer clear of fried and processed foods to avoid large amounts of fat and cholesterol, which can cause heart problems, Sandy says. They should also continue to—you guessed it!—continue to exercise and hydrate often.

The bottom line? Sandy wants to teach the importance of learning and sustaining healthy habits from childhood through adulthood. “All of us need exercise, water, and a balanced diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables and few processed foods,” she says. “There are important things to remember at each phase of life, but the most important lessons stay the same.”

This month, Sandy will lead this workshop in each of our five partner schools, where her nutrition lesson will be followed by a hands-on cooking class. The dish she plans to make with participants? Lentil burgers! The dish is both high in fiber and a big hit with eaters of all ages.

Your donation equips our Guatemalan project partners—young and old—with the tools they need to live healthier. Thank you for believing in the power of education to improve lives. Your support fuels our success!

Links:

• School Nutrition at Pueblo a Pueblo

The 2019 cycle of the School Nutrition project is in full swing here on Lake Atitlán! Sandy spent March planning and leading the first round of healthy cooking workshops in each of our five partner schools. The most recent training took place on March 19th at Chacayá Primary School.

The day of the training, Sandy rode from Santiago Atitlán to the community of Chacayá in the back of a pickup truck, a common form of public transportation in rural Guatemala. She paid the driver a little extra to take her right to the school, which sits on top of a very steep hill with a beautiful view of Lake Atitlán’s volcanos and the lagoon below. The extra boost was much needed—Sandy had some pretty hefty luggage with her, including a big sack containing no fewer than eight heads of cabbage!

Sandy set up her things in the school kitchen. When all of the participating mothers—each with one of their children in tow—had arrived, Sandy began the day’s activities. She started with a game to test participants’ knowledge. She handed out cards with a V for verdadero (“true”) on one side and an F for falso (“false”) on the other. “True or false: foods like chips and cookies help your children maintain a healthy weight?” she asked. "True or false: the two best ways to stay healthy are to eat healthy foods and exercise?" The students and their mothers giggled as the correct answers were announced. They listened as Sandy explained the importance of maintaining a healthy weight and the relationship between diet and body weight.

Sandy then announced the main dish of the day: stuffed cabbage! She divided the group into teams and gave instructions: wash and boil the cabbage, mix the meat-and-rice filling, and chop the elements of the day’s side dish: a broccoli and carrot salad. She sprinkled a mix of salt, pepper, clove, and dried garlic over the cabbage filling—and sprinkled some more over the broccoli as it cooked in a large pan. “The only way a lot of people in this community know how to prepare broccoli is in scrambled eggs—and cabbage is usually just boiled plain" she explained later. "I wanted to introduce these families to new ways of preparing these nutritious vegetables." She added, "I use the garlic seasoning because it's an easy way to make vegetables taste delicious! A lot of families aren't used to cooking with garlic, but they like it once they've tried it."

Sandy then showed the students and their mothers how to fold the cabbage leaves around the filling. Together, they filled up two huge pots with the stuffed leaves. While the dish cooked, everyone cleaned up and enjoyed a little down time together. At last, Sandy announced that the stuffed cabbage was done cooking, and the mothers filled up plastic containers with the final product to take home to their families for dinner!

The next months will bring new foods and new recipes into the kitchen at Chacayá Primary School—recipes that participating mothers can then make in their own kitchens at home. Sandy’s work introduces families to easy and affordable ways to incorporate nutrient-dense vegetables into their diets—invaluable knowledge when it comes to the healthy development of children! Your support helps mothers put healthy food on their families' dinner tables here in rural Guatemala. Thank you for believing in the power of education and the importance of nutrition!

Links:

• School Nutrition at Pueblo a Pueblo