Transcript

Sound Partners Report #2
Aired 03/18/03
DN = David Nicholas, News Director
PW = Pam Ward, Executive Director of ChildCare Connections, Northwest Michigan 4C Council

Host Intro:
CMU Public Broadcasting is producing a series of stories and programs focused on the theme of “Healthy Weight in Preschool Children.” This project is supported by “Sound Partners”—a joint effort of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Benton Foundation.

CMU Public Radio News Director, David Nicholas talked with a northern Michigan childcare administrator about the special recognition this week toward programs that target children’s needs for nutritious meals.

DN:
Well, we’re talking about this currently, March 16th through the 22nd being the designated National Child and Adult Care Food Program week. And we are talking with Pam Ward, the executive director of ChildCare Connections Northwest Michigan 4C. First of all, Pam, thanks for joining us. I wonder if we could begin by exactly defining what is the Child and Adult Care Food Program.

PW:
OK, well thank you. The program is set up through the USDA. It is a program that helps reimburse licensed and registered childcare providers for the meals they serve the children and to give them nutrition education.

DN:
Who specifically comes under a qualification for this program to receive those services?

PW:
Providers that are currently in good standing with the state of Michigan under their licensure as a day care provider or there are providers who are considered registered and they, again, are in good standing and participating with the state of Michigan requirements for providing childcare.

DN:
Are there some overall goals and mission of the program, the Child and Adult Care Food Program?

PW:
There are. One of our main goals is to help children have healthy meals, but also to help them learn what a healthy meal would include so they will have, hopefully, the habits of healthy eating from very young ages.

DN:
How does this program receive its funding?

PW:
The program receives its funding through the federal government through the USDA. That money is then filtered into the Michigan Department of Education and then dispersed to our agency as a sponsor. Then we disperse the funds to the providers.

DN:
And how many children are currently involved in this particular program?

PW:
In Michigan there are currently approximately 27,900 children involved with the program.

DN:
That’s statewide?

PW:
That’s statewide.

DN:
In your particular region, is there a breakdown to the region that your organization serves there in northwest Lower Michigan?

PW:
There is. We are one of three sponsors for our area of northwest Michigan. Our agency currently has approximately 250 providers participating with the program. The breakdown is around 8,000 children.

DN:
If we were to talk about the overall benefits, they may seem obvious based on what you’ve already described. But maybe a little more specifically, what are the benefits of the program overall, the benefits to the child, and also benefits to the parents as to those taking part in the program?

PW:
Well again, as I spoke before, the children we are hoping will understand… they need to have the good nutrition so they can develop properly. This is a very important time in the early years for them to have the proper nutrition to help them develop not only their eating habits, and eating patterns that are healthy, but also to help their bodies gain the nutrition that they need in this time of developing.

Also there are attitudes toward food. Hopefully, there will be an atmosphere of positive eating. With so much child obesity in the forefront; we feel that this program is very important because it can have some lifelong eating habits that can be beneficial to children. Of course, for parents we are finding that parents not only are getting some nutrition education through the provider’s meals that are served but also from their children and from what they see their children experiencing in the realm of eating in their day care center.

DN:
We are talking with Pam Ward, the executive director of ChildCare Connections Northwest Michigan 4C Council and specifically about National Child and Adult Care Food Program week, which runs through March 22nd.
What you just said, Pam, leads to a connection to the theme that has been put on this year’s week, which is “Plant the seed for a lifetime of healthy eating.” I think your comments sort of were tied to that. Was that why this particular theme was chosen? How did you go about organizing the week in this fashion?

PW:
It is from a different group. It’s a group that’s an umbrella group that is advocating for the food program sponsor; it’s called the Sponsor Association. It is a group of people that are sponsors like we are, that have tried to raise the awareness for parents and the general community about the merits of this program and that this program is available to providers and to families. This is what our theme was this year. We felt that planting a seed was a nice little phrase to use, and then we did pass out to all of our providers, tomato seeds for them to plant with the children, again giving the child a connection to where their food comes from, and why it’s important, and how we nourish the food and then nourish your body through that food. That’s where we came from.

DN:
The specific Child and Adult Care Food Program week, then; are there other events planned throughout the week that will lend a hand in the overall promotion of the idea, the theme, “Plant the seed for a lifetime of healthy eating?”

PW:
There really isn’t anything else planned. We are trying to do this as a global thing in the country to raise the awareness. Different communities may be doing different things around the country. I don’t have any information on that. I haven’t heard of anybody, but I think the common thread is this “plant the seed” program.

DN:
There is an overall question that probably is a very obvious one, but why is proper nutrition and health important in children? You talked about the growing problem of childhood obesity. Is this something that we are finding at a younger age group now and that is why we’re trying to gear some of these better habits and proper nutrition and health to younger and younger age groups at this time?

PW:
Right. I think it is becoming a problem, and it is getting younger and younger. Also, as we know with anything else, if you start young, hopefully you can break some of the patterns that have been set or that people are falling into. So, “get them while they are young” is what I feel is very important in this aspect.”Host Tag:
Stay tuned to CMU Public Radio and Television for more reports in the Sound Partners series on “Healthy Weight in Preschool Children.”