The Wellness Programme

In Transition School, one class of 8 - 9 year olds have been taking part in a wellness programme. Paula, their teacher, explains that it begins with a brainstorming during which the kids are asked to come up with ideas about how they can stay well. “They come up with things like exercise, relaxation, inner work, and eating the right food.”

Paula then designs a course that will expose them to some of these things and make them more aware of the benefits. “Getting enough exercise is not a problem as they all have sports. But going to a hatha yoga class was very new to them. They loved it.”

Food gets a lot of attention in the wellness programme. When Paula announced they were going to visit and help prepare food in Anandi’s raw food restaurant, initially the kids were less than enthusiastic. “But then they really got into it. We were cutting up organic cucumber and tomatoes, and making a dressing with cashews, banana and lemons. At the end they all ate a whole mound of what we had prepared and really loved it. One of the kids was so excited that he said he wanted to have his next birthday party there.”

Another day they did a food survey. The children wrote down everything that they ate and drank on that day. Paula entered all the data into a computer and each kid got a read-out of what he or she had consumed, broken down into percentages of carbohydrates, proteins etc. Then Paula explained what the different foods do for the body, the importance of getting daily minimum servings of the different food groups, and she asked them to look at their food record for that day. What did they get a lot of? How did this make them feel? What did they lack? How did this make them feel?

“It is all about making them more aware of what food does to the body. For example, some kids had twelve servings of sugar on that particular day. We talked about how sugar affects the body, how if you are having difficulty concentrating at school, the sugar in your body may contribute to that, and how eating dates may be a healthier way of consuming carbohydrates than sugary drinks.”

How much difference does this programme make? Is it changing their food habits?

“I know what they choose for lunch now and what they chose before, and there is definitely a difference,” says Paula. “At lunch every day they get Solar Kitchen food and before I had to really encourage the kids to eat the salad, but at the raw food restaurant even the kids who would not eat salad ate it, and now even the boy who hated Solar Kitchen food really makes an effort to eat everything.”

And the food at Transition School is also changing. The Solar Kitchen staple is now augmented twice a week with sprouts and a health drink prepared at the school.

Of course, what happens at home may be different. Paula is amazed how many parents regularly buy big bottles of sugary, soft drinks. And, she admits, the children still love bringing sweets to school when it is somebody’s birthday. “Nevertheless, somehow, they are beginning to associate ‘healthy’ with ‘celebration’. When we prepare food together, eat together and then reflect in class upon how it makes us feel, it starts helping to make a change. And I tell them they can offer to help their parents prepare food, and to make sure there are always fresh vegetables and fruit in the house.

“I also have little books about nutrition that the kids can consult. So once the seed is there, if I can keep nurturing it I am hoping that something stays. It’s not a matter of making them fanatical about food. I myself like cake, I like biscuits, but when I’m eating them I enjoy them with the awareness that they are a treat, and that I am not going to have another serving of them today.

“In the end it is all about awareness. Now they understand the necessity for getting enough sleep, they understand food and how it affects the body. Even in our morning concentrations, we try to bring more awareness inside the body. And every child in Transition School gets two hours of the Awareness through the Body programme every week. So, actually, these children have a very good foundation for wellness in later life.”