September 16, 2014

Spreading Hope and Education


MANNA recently partnered with Camp Dreamcatcher for an education event. The event took place on August 19, 2014 at Camp Saginaw in Oxford, PA.  The week-long summer camp was created for youth infected/affected by HIV/AIDS.  This year, Camp Dreamcatcher invited MANNA’s Registered Dietitian, Alura Costa, to teach an interactive nutrition workshop.  Alura partnered with Carly Roop, a Registered Dietitian from Joan Karnell Cancer Center, to develop a class to educate the campers on healthy eating specifically focusing on diabetes and heart disease, two chronic illnesses that can be prevented and controlled through healthy eating and exercise.

Alura and Carly showed the campers how to read and understand important nutrition information on nutrition labels so that they can make healthy food choices for themselves.  They focused on healthy serving sizes, calories and sugars of foods that are commonly found in corner stores and how to find healthy options.  The campers then participated in making delicious, homemade yogurt popsicles using ingredients that you can easily find already in the home including greek yogurt and fruit.  At the end of the session, the campers were able to identify healthy food options and enjoy their delicious popsicles!

PicMonkey Collage

Supporting Camp Dreamcatcher is important to MANNA since we started out as an HIV/AIDS organization and continue to serve and support that population.  As nutrition educators, we must take advantage of any opportunity to reach out to the youth in our community to provide them with the education and skills that they need so that they can lead a long and healthy life.  This year’s Camp Dreamcatcher event was a huge success!  To learn more about Camp Dreamcatcher and the children whose lives have been touched by HIV/AIDS please visit www.campdreamcatcher.org.