A number of enthusiastic students of Light of Christ Catholic School Division took part in a healthy-eating activity Thursday, March 10.
It was at 1:30 p.m. that the kids took a big bite into their apples for the Great Big Crunch, a national activity that took part across Canada.
The apples had been donated by local grocers at Discovery Coop, Frazer’s No Frills, Sobey’s, Super A, Delta Coop in Unity and Hujber’s Market in Spiritwood.
The idea was brought to the school division’s attention by Rhea Good, a teacher at John Paul II Collegiate, who learned about this national activity.
In November she had attended a national conference in Montreal called Changing the Menu, devoted to improving school food across Canada.
“That’s where I first heard about this event called The Great Big Crunch,” Good said.
Last year there were some 185,000 participants across Canada and the expectation is there will be even more this year.
She presented the idea to the school division.
“Our director, Cory Rideout, was very excited about it, he thought it was a wonderful idea. So he just very quickly mobilized all the principals that we were going to be doing this.”
It was a big task to get things organized and to collect all the apples.
Good was at École Monseigneur Blaise Morand for the Big Crunch activities on Thursday. The experience looked like a memorable one for all the students there.
“I was really happy to see the level of enthusiasm, and I think that a beautiful fresh country apple is a wonderful way to celebrate the bounty we have been given. It’s a much different type of eating than eating some type of processed food from a plasticky, crinkled-wrapped package.
“It’s just a very different experience and whole, fresh foods bring people together and make people feel good, and they really do add to life.”
She confirms the event will return on an annual basis from now on, although it is possible some other healthy foods could be included in future years.
