Wait...Newark is a food what?!

I finally felt like my students truly understood the importance and benefits to healthy eating and the scary effects of childhood obesity. I felt ready to introduce them to the idea of a "food desert" and began discussing the effects of living in one. I couldn't decide how to introduce this concept to a group of 6 and 7 year old kids, but my professor, Dr. Picower, gave me the idea to draw a map of the area in which they live and label all of the healthy and unhealthy places to purchase food. I thought this was a really good idea and would serve as a good visual for my students. I began the lesson by explaining to my students that Newark had a problem and it was up to us to figure out what it is.

This is a picture of the map I designed of the area around our school to help my students visualize that there aren't a lot of healthy places to eat or purchase food.

The map sparked some good conversation. One student said, "I don't get it. How come there aren't more green buildings? Doesn't Newark want us to eat healthy?" Another student said, "Ms. Stewart if we eat at all those red places then we might get obese; I don't want to get sick!" There was a lot of conversation around what happens to us if we live in a food desert. By the end of the lesson, students were able to reiterate the problem in Newark, what a food desert is, why Newark is a food desert and what can happen to us if we live in a food desert.

Here is an example of a student's understanding of food deserts.

Here is an example of a student's understanding of food deserts.

Here is an example of a student's understanding of food deserts.