Using a “play with your food” curriculum, this project focuses on teaching first graders the importance of fruits and vegetables to maintain a healthy body and mind. The class will take place twice a month for the 197 students. They will create a calendar and get a taste of the food they learn about.

Cameron Lory Faulds and Tanya Paluso go to one of Abbott House’s facilities to teach the residents how to cook dinner on Sunday evenings once a month.

Tanya Paluso and Brenda Walton team-teach cooking during the Community Class hour on Friday afternoons.  This is the second year for both teachers teaching the class, and they focus specifically on expanding the students’ palate as well as knowledge of how food is prepared.

The theme of the class is Around the World. Each class focuses on a different country’s cuisine. Students have tried food for the first time such as sushi, hummus, pomegranate, squash, and quinoa.

Find out more about Validus Prep online at www.validusprep.org

On November 17 2007, Play 4 Life, Inc. and Jamba Juice will bring The Giving Thanks Project to serve The Concourse House located at 2751 Grand Concourse in the Bronx.

The aim of the Giving Thanks Project is to provide mentorship, support and health education to mothers and their children in a homeless shelter at a time when community support is most vital. Program activities will engage shelter residents in physical activity and educate them on nutritious autumn recipes.  These activities seek to create a true culture change, avoid stigmatizing individuals and impacting their self-esteem, and promoting healthy behaviors to establish life-long healthy habits. Participants will leave the event with enhanced knowledge on the importance of physical activity and fresh food in living a healthy lifestyle, in turn, reducing the risk of chronic illness and obesity.

Concourse House, home for women and their children, works to eliminate homelessness by providing homeless families with safe, stable, transitional housing. Concourse House works with the families to break the cycle of poverty by providing a variety of social services and interactive programs that promote growth and independence.

Concourse House emphasizes education, stability, and healthy independent living. Each family is offered programs and activities directed towards goal-setting and developing a sense of personal responsibility. By providing the women and children with a supportive and engaging environment, Concourse House hopes to instill in the families a successful transition into permanent housing.

There are 42 women and 50 children who live at Concourse House. Concourse House has a high success rate of assisting these mothers to find employment and permanent housing. They provide the mothers access to day-care, after school programming, employment workshops and fairs, and job training.

For the Giving Thanks Project, Concourse House expects 20 women, 20 children, and 5 staff members to attend.

All photos were taken by Udo Derrick Salters.

On October 6 2007, Play 4 Life, Inc. held its first annual Play Day in Central Park. Activities included soccer, kickball, martial arts, yoga, meditation, food and cooking demos, and a relay race. The aim of Play Day is exactly as the title says: to bring outdoor fun and play to kids of all ages across New York City.

Over 200 volunteers and kids attended the event. Booths and stations were hosted by: The Red Cross; Yoga Works; Building with Books; Sahaja Yoga Meditation; martial artists Paul Campbell and Jason Lee; yoga instructor Julia Osborne; holistic health counselors Valerie Lee and Barbara Blake; chef Elizabeth Ferris; and The Committee for Hispanic Children and Families, Inc.

This event would not have been possible without the vision of Tim Methurst and the support of Carolyn Arnold, Alicia Stern, Kevin Williams, Jen Blumenthal, Elizabeth Harris, and Jake Peake.

A special thanks to Jamba Juice, Subway and Initiative for the generous donations.

All photos were taken by Udo Derrick Salters.