Preparing Healthy School Lunches, at Wild Oats Market
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. - Send your children off to school with delicious, easy-to-prepare lunches that meet the special nutritional needs of their age groups. Wild Oats Market, a cooperatively-owned market focusing on local and organic foods, invites you to attend an interactive evening on healthy school lunches for children of all ages, from infancy to adolescence.Local dietitians Deborah Blood and Allyse Wiencek will suggest creative, economical ways to prepare school lunches that will appeal to your kids, while giving them the nutrients they need to grow into healthy young adults.
Some of the areas they will cover are: how traditional store-bought baby food compares to organic store-bought and freshly pureed organic baby food; how to keep toddlers interested in food that’s good for them; how to involve elementary school children in making their own lunch; and the importance of calcium for teens. We will sample some of Deborah’s and Allyse’s tasty school lunch ideas, and recipes will be available to take home.
Helping Parents Make Healthy Choices for Their Children/ will take place on Wednesday, September 16, from 7-8 pm, at Wild Oats Market. The evening is free to all. Please sign up at Wild Oats Market, 320 Main Street, Williamstown, or call the store at 413-458-8060.
Dietitian Deborah Blood’s Five Key Components for a Healthy School Lunch:
1. The sandwich (pitas, wraps, traditional varieties)
2. The drink (organic juice box, water, smoothies, drinkable yogurt)
3. The crunch (rice cakes, pretzels, veggie chips, sesame sticks)
4. The sweet (fruit leather, trail mix, yogurt raisins, applesauce)
5. The fruit or vegetable (apple, orange, carrots, celery, cherry tomatoes, sliced yellow pepper)
Wild Oats Market is a member-owned, cooperative-based whole foods market that buys extensively from local and regional natural and organic food producers. One need not be a member to shop at Wild Oats, although membership offers several benefits.
The market carries a wide selection of organic and naturally-made products, including: meats, eggs, dairy products, fruits, vegetables, breads, pastas, oils, cereals, juices and chocolate, and has an in-house bakery and prepared foods department which include a hot bar, salad bar and grab n’ go deli. Wild Oats Market also carries natural supplements and personal care products, as well as environmentally-friendly household supplies.
