For National Nutrition Month in March 2019, SCHNC’s Health Educators visited the elementary schools in the county and talked about the effects of sugar on the body and carried out an activity with them.  This activity consisted of looking at a wide variety of typical snack foods and drinks that kids like to eat, as well as, some healthier snack options and having the students try to determine how many grams of sugar they thought was in a serving size of each item through the use of sugar cubes.  One sugar cube= 4 grams of sugar, therefore, they had to lay out how many sugar cubes they thought each item contained.

At the end we went over the items and the actual grams of sugar each contained.  Students were shocked that one serving of some of their favorite drinks and foods contained more than the daily sugar recommendation!  Through this activity students were able to better understand how much sugar they are actually consuming throughout the course of a day, which far exceeds the amount any child or adult needs.  This was certainly an eye opener for the kids!

This was a one time presentation for students.  We reached 385 students in Elkin City Schools, 787 students in Surry County Schools, 162 students at Millennium Charter Academy, and 20 students at Salem Christian Academy.