Organizations team up to provide healthy snacks for after school

Local organizations are promoting healthy eating habits to kids during their out-of-school time.

Members of Coulee Medical Center and the local Lions Club have been making donations of healthy snacks to local youth who might otherwise eat junk food on the weekends.

The effort promotes healthy eating habits while also helping prevent childhood obesity and diabetes.

Melissa Stanley is a registered nurse who works for Coulee Medical Center and is also the school nurse at Lake Roosevelt Schools. She observed a need for students to have healthy snacks during their weekends or after school last year.

Stanley said they usually keep some crackers and Sprite in the nurse’s room for students who are visiting it for one reason or another.

“Kids started coming in hungry, asking for crackers,” Stanley said. “Some weren’t eating as well as they should. Sometimes they’d say there was not enough food in the house, so we started carrying a little extra food in the health room, then sending some extra food home that the nursing staff was purchasing. This year we noticed the need was becoming more evident in more children, so we started asking the hospital and clinic employees to help.”

Stanley said that the hospital and clinic employees donate both money and food toward the cause that is benefiting children of all ages at the schools.

Sometimes students in need of healthy snacks will come to Stanley, she said. Other times, staff or other students may recommend students who may need some extra food outside of school.

Stanley emphasized that the process is kept anonymous.

“It’s amazing, and the kids are appreciative,” she said. “We are giving them fruits and vegetables so that they are not hungry, but are eating things [that are] better for them.”

Betty Brueske, a commissioner for Hospital District 6 and a member of the local Lions Club, got the club involved in the cause.

“I thought this is a great idea for the Lions Club,” Brueske said about seeing CMC donating toward the cause. “The Lions Club is really formed to serve the community in various ways, and diabetes is one of our focuses right now. This is one of those things the Lions Club willingly does in our community, and we like to see it happen.”

“Junk food isn’t great for kids,” Brueske continued. “It contributes to diabetes and children being overweight.”

One in five American children are affected by obesity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Obesity is associated with numerous health risks, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, respiratory issues, and self-esteem issues.

Some 193,000 Americans under the age of 20 are diagnosed with diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association, and 30.3 million Americans total had been diagnosed with diabetes as of 2015.

Brueske said that Harvest Foods sells healthy snacks for the cause to the Lions Club with a 10% discount.

Those foods include nuts, trail mix, fruit, protein bars, yogurt, peanut butter, roasted chickpeas, tuna, and meat sticks, Brueske stated.

“To avoid eating salty chips, soda, and candy, kids need to have access to other snacks when they are hungry,” a release Breuske sent to The Star. “Working together, Harvest Foods, CMC employees, and the Lions Club will make available snacks that are high in protein, fiber and healthy fats, all of which are known to help maintain healthy blood sugar levels. … Healthy snacks can help curb hunger while adding a nutritious energy boost.”