Fresh Fest ~ Festival Fresco

A traveling package of activities designed to engage youth in healthy eating, promote physical activity, and provide nutrition education for students in the Ravenswood City School District. For children without access to vibrant school gardens or regular nutrition education, Fresh Fest ~ Festival Fresco brings a science-based nutrition program and high quality physical activities to schools, afterschool programs and other youth-serving organizations. By implementing activities that promote healthy living, Fresh Fest works with partners to prevent the chronic illnesses associated with poor nutrition and childhood obesity. Future and current elements of Fresh Fest include:

• Bicycle Blender, powered by kids, mixes nutritious fresh fruit smoothies while teaching youth about the tradeoffs between calories burned and calories consumed.
• On Your Mark, Get Set, Breakfast! encourages youth to explore healthy breakfast options through a running race that demonstrates how a good breakfast helps them thrive.
• Processed or Not involves grinding wheat berries into flour with a hand grinder and drawing the parts of a seed while learning about nutritional differences between unprocessed, minimally processed and highly processed foods.
• Interactive Cooking Demonstrations incorporate the proven curriculum from the CA Department of Public Health’s Harvest of the Month program to teach youth how to prepare healthy (and fun!) snacks like black bean tostados, ethiopian lentils and stovetop pizzas.
• Try it, You'll Like it challenges students to convince their peers to try an unknown fruit or vegetable by designing a creative advertising campaign about it.

During Spring 2010, Fresh Fest ~ Festival Fresco is in its pilot phase as an after school program at East Palo Alto Charter School (EPACS). Fresh Fest ~ Festival Fresco is supported by the following generous organizations: California Department of Public Health (Network for a Healthy California), Palo Alto Community Fund, Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund, Sequoia Healthcare District, Tides Foundation, and others.