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Open Door Center Awarded $20,000 Grant From Nutrition, Dietetics Foundation

OSSINING, N.Y. -- Open Door Family Medical Centers, in partnership with the Ossining school district, has been awarded a $20,000 grant from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Foundation to provide a bilingual nutrition and physical education program for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten children and their parents and caregivers.

Open Door will work with children and families on increasing consumption of fruits, vegetables and other healthy foods through the grant.

Open Door will work with children and families on increasing consumption of fruits, vegetables and other healthy foods through the grant.

Photo Credit: Contributed
There also will be an emphasis on improving physical health.

There also will be an emphasis on improving physical health.

Photo Credit: Contributed

The local grant is one of 50 the academy is giving to nonprofits in 23 states, including six in New York. The General Mills Foundation is funding the $1 million Champions for Healthy Kids initiative, which aims to improve healthy eating and physical activity behaviors.

Open Door will work with children and families on increasing consumption of fruits, vegetables and other healthy foods, improving physical fitness, planning meals and food shopping and practicing food safety.

Parents and caregivers will be encouraged to accompany their child to all the Nutrition Matters! program sessions and make healthy behavior changes in the home. Activities at the sessions will include food/snack/meal preparation and demonstrations, growing vegetables, nutrition-based arts and crafts and fun physical activities.

“By targeting the pre-k and kindergarten population, the proposed project will maximize its impact both by setting good habits early for the children that they will carry into adulthood, and by spreading the message to parents/caregivers and their families,” Open Door wrote in its grant application.

The program, which will be at Park Early Childhood Center, will reach 655 children and their families. The AmeriCorps Community HealthCorps Volunteers of Open Door will be trained to deliver the program to children and caregivers. The grant is from June 1 through May 31, 2016. 

For more information about Open Door Family Medical Centers and Nutrition Matters!, contact Tammy Evans, MPH, Open Door Wellness Program administrator at 914-502-1332 or tevans@ODFMC.org.

For more information about the Champions for Healthy Kids initiative, visit www.eatrightfoundation.org/foundation/championgrants.

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