“We knew from our research that the mobile recreation unit would be a welcome addition in areas that needed its services most. What we didn’t
know was how overwhelmingly popular it would be. Its success has exceeded all
of our estimates.”
 -David Bieter, Boise Mayor
Boise parks staffer Roseanne Daily kneels
to help Osman adjust his soccer jersey before a game begins at Boise apartment
complex. (left)
Sophia, Amina, Zang, and another Amina grin as they head off
to play soccer with a ball from Boise Parks & Recreation van. UI Extension
helps fund twice-weekly van visits. (top) Rasiki grabs ball while
Ali holds a tot prior to soccer play. Boise Parks’ van encourages sports play
and healthy snacks for children of refugees who don’t
have play gear of their own.
Nutrition, ball games, & fun for Middle eastern & African
children in Boise
by Marlene Fritz
Photos by Kerry Maloney
“Mobile van! Mobile van! Mobile van!” The chant begins as Boise Parks & Recreation’s mobile recreation unit rolls up to a Boise Bench apartment complex. Dressed in kaleidoscopic colors, the mostly Somali, Sudanese, Iraqi, and Afghan children leap towards its noisily opening doors and reach for the recreational equipment inside. They’re primed and pumped for the soccer, kickball, and snacks the twice-weekly van delivers.
If it weren’t for the $16,000 that the University of Idaho’s Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) contributed this year, Roseanne Daily says the van likely wouldn’t be stopping at four low-income Boise apartment complexes that house primarily refugees. “The partnership is amazing,” says Daily, recreation coordinator for Boise Parks & Recreation. “It really helps.”
It’s also serendipitous. EFNEP is a UI Extension program. Linda Gossett, UI Extension’s EFNEP educator in Boise, was sifting through her budget for dollars to teach nutrition and physical activity to additional low-income children—and finding those dollars short—just as Boise Parks & Recreation’s Doug Holloway was discovering that the city wouldn’t be funding his request for a dietitian to serve similar kids.
Boise groups team up for “great partnership”
“It was a great partnership from the beginning,” says Holloway, the department’s superintendent of recreation. He and Gossett put their heads—and their programs—together, then brought the Idaho Foodbank and registered dietitians from the Humphreys Diabetes Center into the fold. The result: a coordinated, multi-agency program—grounded in a Michigan State University 4-H curriculum called Jump into Foods and Fitness (JIFF)—and a whole enthusiastic team of nutrition and exercise experts.
America’s Promise, Boise Weekly, and the Boise Sunrise Rotary Club also provided financial support to the mobile van, which was launched last President’s Day.
“Before, I only had enough money for a part-time position—and one person just can’t reach this many kids,” says Gossett. “Now we’re able to get our messages about nutrition and physical activity to more kids and in a much more efficient way.” By providing a signer, Boise Parks & Recreation even delivers those messages to deaf children.
Keeping nutrition messages simple
Daily limits her JIFF-based nutrition lessons to five minutes while the kids enjoy the juice, milk, cheese sticks, granola bars, dried fruit, and other tasty snacks the Idaho Foodbank contributes. That’s as long as she can keep their minds off the balls they’d rather be kicking around. “I want them to understand that nutrition isn’t rocket science,” she says. “It doesn’t have to be difficult—just simple choices, everyday things, like drinking more water and eating as many fruits and vegetables as you want.”
Daily says the JIFF curriculum is easy to deliver, and its results are easy to track. For 11 weeks this summer alone, she calculates the mobile van’s “youth visits” at 2,100 at the four apartment complexes and 1,159 at eight parks. In its first school semester last spring, it also traveled to nine Title I elementary schools—schools with high percentages of youth from low-income families—after school (3,606 youth visits) and at lunch (21,964 youth visits).
“We knew from our research that the mobile recreation unit would be a welcome addition in areas that needed its services most,” says David Bieter, Boise mayor and a program advocate. “What we didn’t know was how overwhelmingly popular it would be. Its success has exceeded all of our estimates.”
The partnership, though not the van, even reaches into after-school community centers adjacent to two and soon-to-be three Boise schools.
Gossett describes a central EFNEP mission as improving the nutrition, food preparation skills, food purchasing, food safety practices, and physical activity of low-income families and youth. “Low-income children often don’t live near grocery stores; instead, they live near gas-station food marts where they don’t have a lot of choices,” she notes. Money is also tight for buying sports equipment or participating in organized teams.
Children who don’t normally mingle form teams, gain nutrition wisdom
On the apartment complex playfield, children from cultures that don’t normally mingle are forming teams. “They play good. They play together. They like it,” says Somali mom Fatuma Ali, with a hearty thumb’s up. Even the small Muslim girls slip on soccer vests over their long skirts and head scarves.
Resting afterwards, 11-year-old Haruni of Somalia recalls what he’s learned about nutrition. “Don’t drink too much soda,” he says. “Get a lot of water for yourself. Take a spoonful of French fries, if you want.”
“Don’t eat too much sugar,” continues his 8-year-old sister, Amina. “Eat healthy stuff, like cheese. If you don’t eat healthy stuff, you won’t get bigger.”
“If you eat apples and juice, you are going to grow up strong and healthy,” affirms Diana, 10, of Afghanistan. “If you eat too much chocolate, you’ll get fat and get cavities.”
Fortunately, says Daily, the African, Middle Eastern, Asian, and Russian refugees who comprise the majority of the apartment complexes’ populations haven’t yet developed American super-sized habits. She hopes they’ll resist the temptation to “get on the fast-food bandwagon” that has fattened so many of their U.S.-born schoolmates.
“The statistics aren’t lying that kids are heavier today than they were 10 years ago,” says Holloway. “They’re heavier than they were five years ago. Even when they have choices to make, they make the wrong ones because the sexier snacks typically taste better. We have to provide that educational component because the schools don’t have time.”
Through UI Extension’s research-based teaching materials, the mobile recreation unit’s young clients are discovering not only what they should eat but why. Says Holloway: “Kids understand it better when you take it that one step further.”
Contact Linda Gossett at lgossett@uidaho.edu
 top
|