Queen's – West o‘ahu KidsZone Program
Instilling a healthy lifestyle in children when they are young can help build the framework for an entire lifetime of healthy habits. Introducing the KidsZone Program—an engaging, hands-on, six-week pilot program for The Queen’s Medical Center – West O‘ahu employees and their children that focuses on living healthy.
As part of Queen’s – West O‘ahu's ongoing efforts to improve the health and well-being of the community, they have adopted the Blue Zones Project® for their employees and are now extending this commitment to create healthy habits for the next generation.
Through cooking demonstrations, horticulture lessons and nutrition classes, KidsZone will teach kids between the ages of 7-12 how to incorporate healthy food preparation into their everyday lives. This course emphasizes sitting down to eat meals with your family, encouraging a plant-slant lifestyle, incorporating more physical activity, and media-free relaxation—all of which are in line with Blue Zones Project principles.
"Awesome! This has been such a great experience! We were at Costco on Saturday and I bought butternut squash. Hoku was all excited about being able to make soup with it and [when] I asked him if he was going to HAVE any of it and he smiled and said, "No." But I told him I would make the butternut squash with chicken broth and he said YES!"
– Ging Ging Liu-Fernandez, KidsZone Parent
During the program's pilot launch, ten of Queen's employees' children explored the Fall theme of kabocha, a type of squash. Mark Gwinner, manager of Landscape Design and Development at Queen’s, introduced the group to the Queen's West Community Garden (Prince Albert Garden) to plant pumpkin and learn about various fruits and vegetables, the different parts of a seed and how to read seed packet instructions. Each child created a Halloween-themed trellis and planted seeds in their own cauldron pots. The second session focused on the nutrition of pumpkins as Rita Madden of Moongardens led the children through a number of activities including making a healthy salad dressing. In the following sessions, Executive Chef Arin Antonio taught the students about the fabrication of pumpkin and walked them through recipes while the children cooked alongside Chef Arin on their own burner stoves. To celebrate the finale of this pilot program, the group enjoyed a potluck of pumpkin dishes and social time.
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Learn more at hawaii.bluezonesproject.com
