Head Start Sharing Circle Stories - Akwesasne

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Transcript - Head Start Sharing Circle Stories - Akwesasne

(Spoken in Mohawk - "Sago...")

Welcome to Akwesasne.

Deborah Terrance
Associate Director - Akwesasne Mohawk Board of Education

Akwesasne is a really unique place to live and to work and to have schools... we have 2 schools in Quebec, and one in Ontario, and actually we have to cross over New York state to visit all 3 schools.

[Children entering the Ahkwesasne Mohawk School]

The Akwesasne Head Start Program, it's a program for children in our community, primarily aged 3... and we provide a lot of supports for families, we try and get 'em ready for school...

There are 6 major components of the Head Start Program... our primary focus is education, but the others are language and culture, social support, parental involvement, health and nutrition.

Alice King
Head Start Supervisor - Akwesasne Mohawk Board of Education

We have several initiatives in our program to promote nutrition throughout the school year.

We have a healthy snack initiative where the dietician comes in and she informs the parents on how to prepare healthy snacks.

[Children washing their hands]

Mandy Graham
Community Dietician - Mohawk Council of Akwesasne

We discuss nutrition, how to plan a healthy meal and what are the components of a healthy snack... and they bring in an example of what their snack is and we tell them whether it's healthy or how they could improve that snack to make it healthier for their kids.

Deborah Terrance

We discourage them from bringing or sending in any kind of junk food into the classrooms because we really want to promote good nutrition.

The students who come to our schools, into our Head Start Program are really fortunate... we're able to provide a free breakfast for all students and we've been able to support a food services program that provides lunches every day.

So instead of just teaching about nutrition in our schools, we practice it... we provide good healthy meals on a daily basis for all of our students.

[Children eating healthy food]

(Sound-up - "...so if they're getting breakfast and lunch at the school...")

Mandy Graham

I got together with the women who plan the menus and who are actually the cooks in the schools and we talk about healthy eating and what's needed to plan a healthy menu to make sure that the kids are getting a healthy breakfast and lunch.

(Sound-up - "...so, your job is to just make sure that the healthy foods are available... their jobs as kids... is to eat it.")

Deborah Terrance

As a teacher, I understand the importance of nutrition to learning. A child who's hungry, really can't learn, a child who's hungry tends to act out in class, so as a Board we've determined that food and good nutrition for all of our students is so important, and what better place to start then Head Start.

Most First Nations communities face a lot of poverty issues... so good healthy foods are often the most expensive so... we try to help as much as we can by providing things that maybe families wouldn't be able to afford... and at least provide them during the school year.

[Children eating healthy food]

Mandy Graham

Twice a year I go in, usually in the month of November because it's Diabetes Awareness Month and so I go into each class and I do a talk on healthy eating and the sugar content in different drinks, and then I also go in, in the month of March because it's nutrition month and they also get delivered a box of fruits every day.

Angel Brant
Teacher/Parent- Akwesasne Mohawk Board of Education

In Native communities diabetes is a problem and an issue... a lot of times in the classrooms we see a lot of students that come in and they have the signs of diabetes at such young ages... we can teach them here to have better nutrition, to eat better, to be healthier people in general and the risks are so high that we need to teach them young... so starting out at the Head Start is a really good basis.

[Children eating healthy food]

Alice King

We talk about nutrition in the classroom with the children daily, and it's not so much as sitting down and doing a lesson with them... we prefer to model in front of the children because I think you learn better that way.

Mandy Graham

Definitely the nutrition component of the Head Start Program is a big success. I'm getting a lot of calls from parents that are interested in making healthy lifestyle changes in their diets as well as the diets of their children.

(Sound-up storytime - "Dad and I go to the supermarket, we buy bread and lots of cheese... maybe he's making sandwiches?")

Deborah Terrance

I think our program here in Akwesasne for our Head Start children is very successful. I have had 4 grandchildren come through the program and all of them, I find, make a lot better choices of food than I do... I am a diabetic... and all of them will tell me "don't eat that Grandma, because that's not good for you"... so they are very conscious of nutrition and I do believe it's because of what they learned in the Head Start Program.

[Children playing]

Alice King

(Spoken in Mohawk - "We make the road for them.")

...We make the road for them...