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June 30, 2005 Program Teaches Importance of Calcium Got milk? Students at three schools on North Dakota’s Standing Rock Indian Reservation do. A six-month North Dakota State University Extension Service dairy nutrition program targeted about 170 fourth- and fifth-graders during the 2004-05 school year. The program also included activities that brought the message about the importance of calcium to all 530 elementary students and their families. “Children are at a critical stage in bone development, so it’s important to encourage them to enjoy calcium-rich foods so it becomes a habit for life,” says Julie Garden-Robinson, an NDSU Extension Service food and nutrition specialist who initiated the program at the reservation schools. The program used the “Calcium for Kids” curriculum developed at NDSU to send the “3-A-Day of Dairy” message to the students and their parents “3-A-Day of Dairy” is a national program that reminds families to consume three servings of milk, cheese or yogurt every day for stronger bones and bodies. Research indicates that most people consume only half that amount. A serving is 8 ounces, or 1 cup, of milk; 1 to 1.5 ounces of cheese; or 6 to 8 ounces of yogurt. Char Heer, North Dakota’s program manager for the Midwest Dairy Council, said the NDSU Extension Service’s program was very good because it encouraged more children to drink milk and piqued their interest in trying dairy products, which are important steps in combating the widespread calcium deficiency in children. The council sponsored the program with a grant. Fourth- and fifth-graders at schools in Fort Yates, Cannonball and Selfridge received monthly classroom lessons from Sue Isbell, an NDSU Extension Service agent in neighboring Grant County. She taught them about daily dairy requirements, lactose intolerance, serving sizes, good sources of calcium and the fat content in different types of milk. Isbell also organized quiz bowls and games, provided the students with handouts, gave them chances to sample dairy products and showed them how to make snacks with powdered milk, a commodity readily available on the reservation. The students completed worksheets and explored dairy-related Web sites as follow-up activities. The program stressed that children ages 9 to 18 need 1,300 milligrams of calcium per day, or the amount of calcium in four 8-ounce glasses of milk. The students set a goal of each drinking four glasses a day and recorded their calcium intake for 10 school days. Students in eight of the 11 classrooms reached the goal, and students in all of the classrooms increased their consumption of milk and other calcium-rich foods. In addition, the students helped develop a calcium-rich snack policy for their class. Each classroom also “adopted” a dairy cow from the Londonderry, N.H.-based Stonyfield Farm, a national yogurt company. The students received an adoption certificate, biography and photo of their cow and a bi-monthly newsletter from the farm’s herd. Plus, all of the students had a chance to milk a cow from the Isbell family farm. “That was a real eye-opener,” Isbell says. “They hadn’t milked a cow before.” Students took home newsletters to provide parents with dairy nutrition tips and recipes and let them know about in-class activities and upcoming calcium education events. Isbell also gave parents a 3-A-Day lesson during parent-teacher conferences. Shelly Hepper and Camie Luger, assistants in the Extension Service’s Sioux County food and nutrition education programs, got all of the kindergarten and elementary students involved in the project through Dairy Day activities in the cafeteria, gym and library. The students tasted dairy foods and a cow mascot handed out “Got Milk?” tattoos. The fourth- and fifth-graders completed surveys before and after the program to show what they learned and whether that changed their dairy consumption habits. Here are some results from those surveys:
Garden-Robinson and her program assistant, Sandra Rather, who was the campus-based coordinator for the project, hope to expand it to other schools throughout the state. ### Source:
Julie Garden-Robinson, (701) 231-7187, jgardenr@ndsuext.nodak.edu
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