Healthy food options spreading, thanks to Anderson youth group

Photo by Michael Woodward

VOILA: Veronica Sanchez (left) and Emily Lafayette pull down a red curtain to unveil a healthy snack options display at Anderson Food and Gas on North Street in Anderson.

A group of Anderson Middle School youth who introduced healthy snack options to Wal-Mart checkout lanes have added similar products at two convenience stores on North Street near Anderson’s New Technology High School: Anderson Food and Gas (AFG) and Sarco Gas and Food.

The youth group, Kids Make a Stand, unveiled a display of healthy snack foods at both stores last Wednesday. The students are engaged in making this change in the community through the guidance of Shasta County Public Health’s latest initiative, Healthy Eating, Active Communities.

The group meets after school once a week and learns about nutrition. The group identified checkout lanes as a place where they craved snack foods, but only unhealthy snacks were available in most stores.

“It makes sense the way they’re doing it,” Sarco Gas and Food owner Amarpal Singh said. Introducing the products is a simple way to help children get or stay healthy, he added.

The display at AFG is especially noteworthy. It is quite large and faces the customer entrance in a small store where space is at a premium. AFG owner Surinder Palsingh smiled and said he just did it “for the kids.”

The group successfully lobbied Anderson’s Wal-Mart store manager Tim Trimble to adopt a couple of checkout lanes with the healthy options products. Wal-Mart stores in Redding and Red Bluff have agreed to adopt the changes after they convert to “Super” Wal-Mart centers.

“To think that five Anderson Middle School kids got this to go,” said Jeri Butler, a public health assistant for Shasta County. “This experience shows the kids that their voices are important, that those in charge will listen to them and change will happen faster because they’re kids.”

Armed with these successes, the group was to speak at yesterday’s Anderson City Council meeting to ask the council to adopt a resolution requesting retail businesses to include healthy snack options in checkout lanes.

The original five members are now training six newer members about nutrition, how to read labels and controlling portion sizes.

“I thought some stuff was healthy, like energy drinks, but they’re not,” sixth-grader Maria Nino said, citing the sugar and caffeine content of those drinks.

Kids Make a Stand is the third Photovoice project to take place in Anderson. The first group convinced the city to reprioritize and install sidewalks along Silver Street to make for safe access to the skate park in the spring of 2005. The second group expressed likes and dislikes of the Anderson River Park to Ken Hartman, director of Parks and Recreation for the city. As a result, the park’s restrooms were equipped with additional lighting and the basketball nets are replaced more often.