Investing in our children’s health and wellness

As the obesity epidemic continues to plague our society, The Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island is taking a stance in teaching our children about health and wellness. This year, both the Alliance JCC Early Childhood Center (ECC) and our J-Space After-School programming will integrate the nationally acclaimed CATCH curriculum into the school and extended day. 

CATCH, which stands for Coordinated Approach To Children’s Health, aims to “transform schools and after-school centers into health-promoting environments.”  The core elements of CATCH include: physical activity programming, nutrition and other health-related education, and healthier food choices for preschool to middle school-aged children.”  Taking it one step further, the JCCA (Jewish Community Centers of North America) has adapted this curriculum specifically for children ages 3-5 years old. Referred to as Discover CATCH: Early Childhood, this program incorporates all the elements of the original curriculum, yet all done through a Jewish lens. The hope is that we will help create good habits while children are young, rather than working to change bad habits later in life.

Each day, children will be exposed to a minimum of 25 minutes of MVPA (moderate to vigorous physical activity), which focuses on a “warm-up and cool-down, cardio-respiratory fitness, muscular strength and endurance, flexibility and motor development movements.” ECC students will have the opportunity to go to the gym to participate in appropriate activities multiple times a week lead by our fitness staff.  The nutrition portion of this program offers age-appropriate information such as how to recognize “go” (healthy) foods and “woah” (unhealthy) foods, and provides tools to help families continue to live a healthy lifestyle at home. 

Gardening is an added aspect that we are implementing within this curriculum, and to complement the program, we are working to create a building-wide garden.  Children are much more apt to trying new fruits and vegetables when they had a part of growing them. We have already begun to grow some vegetables in our plot in the Sessions Street Community Garden and in the courtyard by the fitness entrance, allowing the children attending J-Camp to sample different recipes made with Swiss chard. We hope to be able to provide our chef with fresh food for children to enjoy at lunch on a regular basis.

A few staff members have already been trained in the execution and delivery of this program, and the rest of the staff will be trained just prior to the school year beginning.

MICHELLE CICCHITELLI is director of Jewish Life at the Jewish Alliance.