Serving Barnwell County and it's neighbors since 1852
Beth Overton, deputy director of Southeastern Housing & Community Development, hands out educational information at the Oct. 6 Family Engagement Night held at the Blackville Community Center.
Healthy Child Healthy Future is a coalition of community partners dedicated to holding events for children and their families geared around holistic healthy living.
A series of these events are Family Engagement Nights. On Oct. 6, the coalition held a Family Engagement Night to talk about how nutrition affects your wellness at the Blackville Community Center.
“We want to build healthy children; mind, body and soul,” said Annie Walters, Lead Associate of Community Engagement at Save the Children and Healthy Child Healthy Future organizer.
Holistic health is an approach to health considering multidimensional aspects such as physical, mental, social, and spiritual needs.
At the Oct. 6 event, guest speaker Erica Peake talked about the impact of poor nutrition on our bodies and brain as well as the benefits of healthy eating. Peake is the health educator for Allendale and Barnwell counties for SNAP-Ed Clemson Youth Learning Institute.
In her presentation, Peake explained ‘go, slow, and whoa foods.’ ‘Go foods,’ like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean meats should be incorporated into every meal. ‘Slow foods’ like juice, chicken nuggets, baked french fries, and processed foods are recommended to be consumed one to two times a day. ‘Whoa foods’ are once or twice a week options such as fried foods and processed meats.
Walters observed people’s response to learning about healthy eating, and felt their view of their own eating habits may have changed due to this event.
A dinner of baked chicken, green beans, seasoned rice and a dinner roll was served for participants- all ‘go foods.’
Some sponsors for the events are Save the Children, Barnwell County First Steps, Blackville-Hilda Public Schools, Healthy Families Barnwell County, Barnwell County HEALing Partners, and Foodshare Bamberg County.
Also sponsoring the series of events were South Carolina Regional Housing Authority, South Carolina Office of Rural Health Family Solutions, Building New Beginnings, Inc., SNAP-Ed Clemson Youth Learning Institute, Dominion Energy, Southeastern Housing and Community Development, Low Country Health Care System, Healthy Blue- BlueChoice HealthPlan of SC, SC Stay Plus COVID-19 Housing Assistance, United Way, and Eyes Inc.
More events will be brought to the community by Healthy Child Healthy Future in the future.
