Smart Choices on the Menu at Waverly Park School

By Rosemary Leonetti

Students at Waverly Park School in the Lynbrook School District finished up their annual Health and Wellness Week in gourmet style when a team of chefs from the Long Island Chapter of the American Culinary Federation presented a healthy cooking demonstration.

 Using simple, fresh ingredients, the chefs set up four separate cooking stations where they showed students how easy it can be to make foods that are both nutritious and delicious. 

Among the tasty treats on the menu were gluten-free chicken tortilla soup, turkey chili, fresh fruit with a honey yogurt dipping sauce, and tomato and peach salad with crumbled feta cheese. The chefs used fresh basil from the Waverly Park garden in their recipes and saved all their vegetable scraps for the school’s compost pile. They also prepared a recipe packet for students to take home with them.

Health and Wellness Week began with a kickoff assembly where students pledged to commit to a week of healthy eating and exercise. Among the activities throughout the week were games such as “My Healthy Plate” and “Health and Wellness Bingo,” and “Fun Activity Day.” 

Students created heath-themed posters, attended a dance assembly and a yoga demonstration, rode their bikes or walked to school, and kept a log of all their exercise activities. All activities were planned to make it easy for students to make healthy habits a part of their everyday lives.