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Weight of the world
As obesity rates among children soar and children are regularly confronted with self-esteem issues related to weight, the need for education about healthy eating habits and lifestyles has become crucial.
In the fall of 2004, Jewish Family Services joined forces with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the National Film Board of Canada in The Weight of the World, a project intended to place the subjects of nutrition, eating and our relationship with food on classroom agendas.
The project is named for an excellent documentary film, co-produced by the NFB and the CBC and narrated by David Suzuki, host of the CBC program The Nature of Things.
A risk-prevention consultant with JFS, asked teachers in six Montreal-area elementary schools to show the film to their students - Grade 4 students at Notre Dame de Sion, Sunnydale, Charles A. Kirkland, St. Gabriel and the St. Laurent branch of United Talmud Torahs, and to Grades 5 and 6 students at the Mackay Centre.
The educational film touched on a range of topics - medical, historical and geographic. It looked at how our society has become more sedentary over the centuries, for instance. And it described how cities can be designed to encourage walking.
The consultant then went into the classrooms and used the film as a springboard for discussion on issues from body image and self-esteem to exercise and nutrition. The children seemed especially affected by a link between childhood obesity and diabetes that was discussed in the film. The children were encouraged to define ways of helping themselves and others prevent obesity and its complications.
Each class then did a project related to food. At the Mackay Centre, for instance, where there are children from several different cultural communities, students did a presentation on ethnic foods. Students at Sunnydale kept track for a week of the nutritive value of their snacks. The CBC filmed some of the classes as they did these projects and the footage was featured on a segment of The Nature of Things. A video documenting this project has been made available to schools across Canada.
For more on The Weight of the World and the CBC program involved in the project, visit these websites: www.nfb.ca/theweightoftheworld or www.cbc.ca/montrealmatters.