Chris Hadfield students received a delicious and informative surprise last week when Loblaws visited in part of their President’s Choice ‘Eat Together’ initiative.
Employees from the Bradford Zhers location, as well as in-house dietitian Pui Chi Cheng, educated the students on the importance of not only eating healthy but coming together as a community to enjoy a meal. Chris Hadfield Public School was delighted to participate in the event.
“We are going to talk about a sense of belonging and inclusion and what that means and looks like because that is very important,” said Vice-Principal Francesca Telesco.
Lots of delicious and healthy foods were donated to the school to encourage the students and staff to partake in a healthier lifestyle, foods like apples, yogurts, granola and water to get them off to a good start.
Eating healthy is a very important component to everyday life but the event also focused on community and inclusion. Eating together encourages families to bond and gives them an opportunity to digitally disconnect. Communicating about their day allows families to truly connect and enjoy each other's company.
“To reconnect during a time where we can be disconnected is important”, says Telesco.
A quick presentation by the Loblaws team, Dietitian Pui Chi Chang and Zehrs' Jim Grootjans, got the students engaged in the importance of healthy eating. The students were very enthusiastic to share their knowledge, giving examples of healthy foods they eat everyday.
After the presentation, the students were invited back to their classrooms where healthy snacks awaited them.
“When we eat together, we build good relationships with the people around us, we eat a variety of foods and we eat healthier. We encourage you to start eating together with your families, friends and colleagues too,” said Grootjans.
Student volunteers distributed the food to the classrooms, and every class was able to enjoy a healthy breakfast, eating together as a class community.
The ‘Eat Together’ program is not only limited to the school community. It started as an initiative by President’s Choice back in 2017 to bring awareness of the importance of eating together as a family.
Family life can sometimes have conflicting schedules, making eating together not always possible, that's why President's Choice have planned "Eat Together Day" on June 14, 2020.
"It’s at the table where we can turn a house into a home, a stranger into a friend, and a village into a community. But more than anything, eating together simply connects us. We started the #EatTogether movement in 2017. And with each coming year, we plan to bring more people back to the table," read a statement from the President's Choice website.
Telesco noted that after the event, some of the staff said they are hoping to share this idea by bringing the event to other schools in the Simcoe County District School Board.
To learn more about the initiative, check out their website here.
