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Perhaps nothing explains the Partnership’s impact more clearly than the experiences of the individuals who have changed their lives so profoundly since getting involved. Below, you’ll find stories of the mothers, teachers, advocates and community members who committed themselves to fighting disparities and creating a healthier future for their children. Read parent profiles
ROSA
Rosa didn’t set out to be a community leader or an advocate for school wellness. When Jovita Flores, the Partnership’s community organizer in Rosa’s neighborhood, invited her to attend a nutrition class, she wasn’t interested. The time and the trip across the neighborhood seemed like too much trouble. “Then my blood pressure went up, and I remembered Jovita,” she said. Depressed, worried about her health and living “behind closed doors,” Rosa decided finally to give the nutrition class a try. “It was so much easier to go to Jovita,” than to go to her doctor or someone outside the community, she explained. “I was already intimidated – but with her, at least I was comfortable, I knew her.” What she found was something that Jovita describes as “more like a leadership class, completely different from every nutrition class you know.” Little by little, Rosa began to feel more confident in her power to make change and became more interested in the content of the class. Along with other mothers in the neighborhood, she joined conversations about the food pyramid, portion sizes and ways to make traditional recipes more healthy. Instead of trying to lose weight by skipping meals, she began to cook with less fat and salt. Rosa’s cholesterol dropped, her blood pressure went down and she lost weight, going from a size 20W to a size 14. She’s not depressed anymore, and instead of staying at home, she is active in her community. Her relationship with her husband is happier. And perhaps most important, she said, her kids are happier because she has the energy to play with them. “My whole attitude has changed,” she said. “Now my family sees me happy and enthusiastic.” Her son, who used to be overweight, is exercising and eating healthier food, greatly reducing his risk for the obesity-related illnesses such as type 2 diabetes that affect disproportionate numbers of children in her community. She exercises with her kids, shows them how to read food labels at the grocery store and teaches them about what she learns each week at nutrition class. Though they used to refuse vegetables, she said, “Now they’re open to trying new foods.” More than anything, Rosa said, she’s grateful that she “started in time,” passing along healthy habits to her children before they began to suffer from obesity-related conditions such as high blood pressure. After making such a profound change in her own life, Rosa said she could not stand by and do nothing while obesity and related health problems took over her community. “I wish I could talk with every person,” in the neighborhood, she said, and let them know that wellness resources such as Jovita’s nutrition class are available. In the meantime, she is spreading the message to as many people as possible and has become a hugely successful recruiter for the nutrition class, a voice speaking up to let her neighbors know they can take control of their health – and their children’s health -- no matter how impossible it may seem. Making changes at home and in the community led naturally to working on change at her children’s school. She became a founding member of the first school wellness team at Eli Whitney School, where she hopes children will have a chance to learn the simple lessons about healthy eating that changed her life and will have access to the fresh, healthy food and physical activity that she provides for her children at home. In less than a year since the wellness team was created, it has made significant change at the school. The team has: • Provided nutrition class for parents • Offered nutrition education for students in grades K-3 • Focused on healthy food options at parent school meetings • Offered after-school exercise programs: aerobics for parents, sports, folkloric dance, yoga and hip hop for students • Developed a specific plan for offering more exercise during the school day and offering more healthful options at lunch Rosa explained that real change is an ongoing process for her school as it is for herself as an individual. MIRCA
Mirca loves to exercise. Before she became the exercise teacher and community organizer known as “the Zumba lady” among moms and kids in her community (thanks to the style of dancing she teaches in her classes), Mirca ran a shoe store in the neighborhood and made it her routine to exercise in the store, between shoe racks, after she locked the doors and before going home each evening. Now, she leads women in her community in exercise and dance classes that many say have affected their self-esteem and outlook on life as much as they have affected their health. “The secret is that exercise is my passion,” she said. “I would love to pass that along to other women. I wish they knew that if they came to the class, they would feel so much better about themselves physically and mentally.” She began teaching by holding one class at Anderson School as a way to volunteer and to stay in shape herself.“For me, it’s a reason to stay fit,” she explained. “But I started to realize that at the same time, it was doing something for their [the students’] self-esteem.” The students in the class – mothers of children who attend the school, along with some of their neighbors - began performing the dances they learned, and their enthusiasm and word-of-mouth endorsement led to the creation of more classes at schools throughout the neighborhood and across town. Now, mothers in other communities have learned about the “Zumba lady” and her classes, and they are bringing together moms to dance in their own school gyms and cafeterias.Beyond the physical benefits, many students say they have experienced a change in the way they see themselves, a change that has empowered them to speak up for changes in other parts of their lives and to be strong advocates for healthy environments at school. And experiencing the benefits of exercise makes them more passionate advocates for recess and physical education. “I do see a lot of changes in the students,” Mirca said. “They enjoy dancing more. They become more willing, more willing to be energetic. That’s one thing we all want – we want to keep our energy. Exercise helps us keep that.” Schools, she said, are the ideal place for her exercise groups, because they are convenient places for women to meet. “Schools are really good because it’s mothers who come to the class,” she said. “That’s where you find women who want to be educated about health. I go to the school and I motivate them.” The benefits, it seems, reach beyond the grown-ups. “When they see their moms dancing, it’s good for the kids,” she said. “They think, if my mom is doing that, I can do that too. Hopefully they’ll take it home with them.” CATALINA
Catalina got involved with the Partnership because she wanted to learn how to help her son lose weight. Just as important as the nutrition information she found, however, was the experience of joining together with other parents to raise her voice for change. “Working in a group gives you a strong voice,” she said. “You’re no longer just an individual talking to individuals. You come together, and that’s how you’re able to create change.” As a founding member of the wellness team at McCormick School, she has spoken up for health-promoting initiatives. The team has: • Developed a policy prohibiting junk food at school • Discussed nutrition ideas at a monthly meeting of the Local School Council • Provided a workshop for parents on nutrition, healthy food and physical activity • Offered after-school physical activity programs for students • Brought food education sessions from a local nonprofit, Seven Generations Ahead, to the classroom • Planned a social studies fair with a focus on food and fitness across cultures • Developed a plan to incorporate health and nutrition topics into curriculum for all grades She credits the success of her team’s advocacy efforts in part to the knowledge she gained at the four-part Parents United for Healthy Schools training series in August 2007, a training that provided strategy sessions on building coalitions and leveraging the power of groups to make change. The training also included information on nutrition and physical activity, and on the ways that wellness connects to student learning. “Now I speak with more authority,” she said. “I can speak with certainty and explain to people at schools why we need these changes.” As she moved ahead with powerful changes in the community, Catalina’s family became healthier as well. She said that this change simply “goes back to information.” With the training, she said, “I learned from classes, I looked at my own family. Some of my relatives had diabetes, but I learned from the class that you can change that, prevent it through nutrition and eating habits.” Her son lost weight, as she’d originally hoped. Her husband lost weight, too, and her children have become more willing to join her in exercising rather than watching television. She now prepares dinner with whole-grain tortillas rather than those made from white flour. It’s good to meet these goals, she said, especially because she sees how her family’s experience is connected to her community’s experience – and how her work making changes at school can so powerfully shape both. “I like making a contribution,” she said. “Even if my participation is only a grain of salt, I know I’m helping make a difference.” EVELIA
When Evelia’s son won the district science fair, it had been sixteen years since a student from the neighborhood school in her community had placed at the district level. His project? “It’s about which vegetable gives the most power,” she explained. Vegetables have played a big role in the family’s life since Evelia first agreed to drop by a community exercise class several years ago, a class that connected her to a wellness movement in her neighborhood and led to her role as a leader in the first school wellness team at Gary School. Since that first class, her children have not only gotten used to the idea of eating vegetables but now actually know how to grow them. Her husband has lost 35 pounds and is free from the knee pain that plagued him for years. And Evelia is a founding member of the school wellness team. Evelia and other members of the wellness team are working to make the healthy habits that have changed her kids’ life at home a part of their life at school, too. “It’s very important to continue the good habits at home and school,” she said. “It defeats the purpose to have good habits at home but not have healthy food available at school.” Through the wellness team, she hopes to put in place programs that will give children access to healthy fresh food, add more opportunities for kids to participate in sports, and provide health information for families. These opportunities naturally support children’s academic success. “If they’re healthier, they’re going to learn more,” she said. When Evelia began attending the exercise class, organizer Jovita Flores invited her to join a nutrition class where she and other neighbors talked about eating to support health and began experimenting with ways to make traditional recipes more healthy. Like her neighbors, Evelia enjoyed learning new ways of cooking her favorite dishes – and she loved the chance to try new foods. “I was very excited about learning to prepare these new foods,” she said. “Tofu, granola – I didn’t know what that was!” One mother in the class commented that she had changed her food preparation habits when she moved to the U.S. because she no longer had easy access to fresh tomatoes and herbs. Many neighbors agreed. A neighborhood survey revealed that local grocery stores offered almost no fresh produce, but that many members of the community had agricultural skills they’d learned before moving to the U.S. Some of these neighbors offered to share their skills and, with a little research, Jovita found that the city would provide seeds and workshops on composting. The women worked together to plant backyard gardens around the neighborhood, successfully producing – and sharing – a harvest of tomatoes, cucumbers, chili, hot peppers and parsley that allowed them to integrate fresh produce into everyday cooking. Like many, Evelia brought her kids along to garden. “It’s fun for them,” she said. “And it helps them recognize where food comes from. Now they like vegetables, in particular raw vegetables. Even I’m surprised about that!” Now, she works to share healthy living messages with her neighbors and other parents who can speak up for change at school. Simple access to fresh ingredients and information provided in a comfortable environment has transformed her family’s health, and she hopes the changes she has made will become a way of life throughout the community. “I want to share what I’ve learned with the rest of the community because information is what’s needed,” she said. “At each opportunity, I reinforce the concept of good health and good nutrition."
ESTELAIn her job at a hospital emergency room, Estela sees every day how children’s lives are shaped by the opportunities they have – or the opportunities they lack – to live healthy lifestyles. “I see a lot of kids with asthma who are very sick,” she said. “The way they eat matters. You see a lot of obesity. I think it’s very important. Myself, I used to be very sick. Now I try to eat more fruits and vegetables. I’m losing weight and I don’t have those health problems any more.” Coming face to face with serious health problems and becoming concerned about her own eight-year-old son, Estela dove head first into school wellness efforts in her community. “I try to give one hundred and ten percent for the school,” she said, explaining her team’s efforts to establish a school-based health clinic that will provide services to anyone in the community who needs them. Rather than focusing on problems when they become emergencies, the clinic will focus on preventing disease by promoting healthy lifestyles. As part of her school’s wellness team, she’s worked to bring a salad bar to the cafeteria, providing fresh veggies for the children every day. Her team has worked with staff throughout the school: the librarian is ordering books on healthy eating and the coach is getting tricycles for the gym and working on fun, simple games kids can play indoors on the many days it’s too cold to go outside inbecause of Chicago’s this city that so often experiences “crazy weather..” Next, she’s focused on bringing her school the CATCH program, a physical activity initiative focused on promotingthat promotes cardiovascular health through fun exercise. The wellness team has also set its sights on a program to provide healthy breakfast to all students. Though the team has been in existence for less than one full school year, it has already taken visible steps toward improving the school wellness environment. “I’m seeing changes already,” Estella said. “I know things are going to change—because it’s already happening.” The key, she said, is approaching the inevitable challenges with a team of other individuals dedicated to children’s health. “Team work always works – we know it by experience,” she said. “You can do many things by yourself, but it’s better when you can work with other people who have the same concerns. You’ll be more successful.”
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In years of working to make his neighborhood a healthier place, Abraham has looked beyond the barriers that others may see between the school and the community.
“Whatever the school does influences the larger community,” he said. “In Mexican culture, we have a lot of respect for school. So bad food at school was sending the message that this food must be okay.”
When he and his wife moved to Little Village several decades ago, they got tired of having to drive into other areas of the city to find restaurants where they could order fresh, healthy food – so they opened Café Cathedral, a coffee shop featuring a healthy menu and fresh ingredients.
Abraham also joined the Local School Council (LSC) for McCormick School and became involved in the Partnership when when project partners began meeting at the café. Now, he often provides the healthy breakfast that has replaced donuts at many LSC and wellness team meetings around the neighborhood.
As someone who has long worked to promote wellness in his community – it’s not unusual to find him at the neighborhood butcher shop trying to persuade the butcher to sell healthier cuts of meat – Abraham said that working with the Partnership, the school wellness team and the Healthy Schools Campaign has given him tools that make the efforts far more effective.
“You’ re not alone, you have a whole organization behind you,” he explained. “That gives you power – not to impose, but to suggest healthy changes.”
These changes, he said, will start in the schools but will not end there.
“It’s going to be hard to do,” he said, “but in the long run, it’s valuable. Because it’s going to impact not only the children, but anyone who comes into contact with the school or children."
DOLORES
One day while she was teaching, Dolores looked out the window of her kindergarten classroom at McCormick School and saw Jovita Flores exercising with a group. Curious, she talked with Jovita later and learned about the parent exercise group she led, along with her community nutrition class.
She’d noticed that some of the children in her classroom already suffered from asthma and obesity, meaning they had a hard time running and playing. And she knew that her own young daughter’s health would improve if she lost a little weight. The conversation with Jovita sparked an idea, and she decided to make lessons about healthy lifestyles a part of every child’s experience in her classroom.
“Looking at those little kids who have trouble breathing, trouble exercising – you just reach the point where you say: Stop! It’s got to stop,” she said.
Dolores started adding exercise to the schedule in her classroom, taking a quick break every hour to stretch and jumping along to a kid-friendly exercise video for twenty minutes every day. She found ways to include messages about healthy eating in her daily lessons – lessons covering math, science, reading, art and everything else kindergarteners study – and became more aware of the ways that unhealthy messages had found their way into her classroom. When a math flash card asked children to count pictures of cookies, for example, she traded it out for a student-made card that asked them to count apples. When a text book on food groups showed less-healthy foods (such as French fries) as examples, she had children create their own pictures of healthy examples. Every day, she gives the children “homework” of talking about a healthy-food lesson with their parents.
When the class recently had a party, she decided that it would not include soda and chips. Instead, she took the children on a field trip to the grocery store so they could talk about what they liked from the produce aisle and come up with a healthy “party food..” They chose to have apples with peanut butter for their party.
“We can integrate the messages into math, with science,” she said. “We have to be more conscious of the information we are giving children.”
The shift in messaging, she said, has been even easier than sthe thought it would be. “As a teacher, you say, ‘Oh, I don’t have time,’” she said. “But you see that it’s simple -- you do have time.” That small investment of time has paid off in benefits to the teacher’s major goal: learning.
“They are more open to doing work and finishing their tasks after they are physically active,” she said. “They have more energy. Their brains are more focused, more alert. Their brains are working – when they do math, they get through the problems quickly, just like that!”
As she became more conscious of the healthy messages, Dolores found that she made healthier choices at home and noticed changes in her own daughter.
“She’s been losing weight because she’s not eating grease every day,” she said. “It seems she’s more aware of what she can eat and what she can’t eat. And now she can run more – even the gym teacher told me she’s more involved and can run farther.”
Still, she said, changes to the school environment are desperately needed so that the children – who are now well-versed in wellness and consider healthy eating the norm – have good options available during the time they are required to be in school.
She is encouraging first-grade teachers to find ways to continue the healthy routines she has worked to instill in her kindergarteners, and she hopes the cafeteria will become a place where they can choose fresh, healthy foods.
“The meat tacos, greasy pizza that they serve – the kids don’t like it because they learn that it’s not fresh,” she said. “But they don’t have a choice.”
NYDIA
When Nydia volunteered to help conduct surveys in her neighborhood, West Town, as part of the Partnership’s research, she assumed that she would be able to speak Spanish with the neighbors she surveyed in her traditionally Latino neighborhood. But as she went door to door with questions and a detailed formula ensuring that the research would be statistically valid, she met neighbors who spoke languages she didn’t understand: Ukranian, Polish, and others she couldn’t identify. In some cases, locked gates prevented her from reaching the door where she would have knocked. With this experience, along with the interviews, she learned a lot about the neighborhood she thought she already knew.
“People had a lot to say,” she said. “About E.R. bills, about school, about health problems.”
It was this new knowledge that helped shape her organization’s plan to develop a school health clinic focused on healthy lifestyles and disease prevention, and it helped shape her own commitment to continue improving the food and fitness opportunities available at neighborhood schools.
Nydia became involved with West Town Leadership United through her work as a volunteer at her son’s school. The school, Mitchell, is one of the few schools in the city to recently reinstate recess under the direction of a new principal.
As a volunteer and parent, she was “very concerned about getting recess, especially because my son is a little hyper.” Without recess, “they can’t scream or stretch – just walk and be quiet,” she said. “Thanks to this new principal, they have at least ten minutes to run and jump and play after lunch.”
Her son’s grades have improved since he’s had recess, she said, and his behavior at school has improved. “If he didn’t have those ten minutes, I bet they [the teachers] would be calling me every day,” she said.
Her involvement in the Partnership research has also raised her personal awareness of nutrition. She puts fruit on the kitchen table now, instead of at the bottom of the refrigerator. And she tries to eat breakfast every day so that she can model healthy behavior for her daughter.
Still, she said, schools are essential to shaping children’s health.
“This area has a high level of kids with asthma and obesity,” she said. “Parents can’t always take kids to the YMCA. Maybe they don’t have after-school activities. Most of those sports programs, even in the summer, they cost money. If you have four or five kids, you don’t have money for that. Ten minutes at school makes a difference. And if they work out a little at school, they’ll go home and do the same thing.”
Her strong feelings are shaped in large part by her own observations and the research she helped conduct. She explained, “When you see the numbers and you see that it’s in this area – then you start thinking it’s a big problem.”
RAQUEL
From any perspective, Raquel is a pillar of her community. President of the Local School Council (LSC) for McCormick Elementary School, she also serves on the Local School Council of the nearby middle school, participates in the schools’ bilingual committees and is involved in a range of cultural and social organizations in her neighborhood. Participation in so many organizations, of course, goes hand in hand with attending many meetings – meetings that, until recently, included an unhealthy snack or two.
“We just couldn’t conceive of not seeing donuts” at breakfast meetings, she said. “Now at each LSC meeting, we have a nutritional breakfast.”
Though the switch in food choices shocked many members of the LSC, she said, the new healthy breakfast quickly won their support and made an important point about the value of healthy food and of modeling healthy behavior.
Were there objections to the breakfast of fresh fruit and multi-grain pancakes, the suggestion of the newly -created school wellness team? Or were there objections to the health-promoting changes that the wellness team has been making throughout the school?
“Not really,” she said. “Everyone is supportive. I mean, the breakfast we serve is pretty good!”
It’s this broad support from individuals at all levels of school operation that make it possible for the wellness team to make such meaningful change, she explained. The principals is very supportive, as are teachers, kitchen staff, parents and LSC members. Why?
“The motivating factor is the students, the children,” she said. Diaz Raquel also credits the warm, family-oriented atmosphere of the school with instilling a certain level of comfort with change. “When you come here, you are at home,” she said. “You’re more comfortable, receptive to information, more open to changes.”
The result, she said, is a school “family” that mirrors the values she has within her own immediate family.
“As a mother, I’m always watching nutrition,” she said. “I’m very happy that now there’s a group that has the same healthy values I have – a good, healthy family. Health has always been important to me. I’m not alone now!”
CIRIA
When Ciria became involved with the Partnership and signed up for its 4-part training series, she was looking for one thing: information.
“I wanted to gain knowledge related to nutrition, then wanted to introduce that to my children,” she said. “I saw a lot of obesity in the community and wanted to make a difference.”
She knew that the high obesity rates that children in her community faced could be traced not to personal shortcomings, as some suggested, but to a simple lack of access to information.
“Sometimes people refer to Latinos as not seeking, not striving,” she said. “We do seek, but we just don’t have information.”
Her own experience also influenced her interest in nutrition: though she had always been thin, she was diagnosed with diet-related fatty liver disease and made a decision to change the way her family ate. The training, she said, provided the information she needed.
"It was very helpful to be in the training,” she explained. “There, I was able to see nutritious portions and learned how to develop support in your surroundings. We were able to take information from the training back to school and put it in practice.”
When she took the information back to her school, several people took notice – including the new principal. Now, she is working with the principal to start a school wellness team dedicated to making healthy food and physical activity the norm at school.
Her new knowledge hasn’t gone unused at home.
“I’m already seeing a change in my daughter,” she said. “Everyone in my family is getting involved. As an adult sometimes you get set in your ways, but if you take time to enjoy an apple with your kids, that makes a difference. It’s important because it’s like planting a tree. You plant it, and it grows and has branches that reach farther than you know.”
BENITA
As part of research conducted for the Partnership, organizers in Little Village decided to ask children and families to maintain “food diaries” so they could collect data on the food available at school (and at home?). The goal of the diaries was to collect information – but Benita found that the simple act of keeping a food diary prompted her son to begin making changes in the way he eats.“He was one of those students who didn’t like breakfast,” she explained, adding that since keeping the diary and talking about food choices, he has begun to eat a little something – or at least drink some milk – before going to school.
When Benita first learned about the Partnership and began attending Jovita’s nutrition class, she was already concerned about school wellness issues: her son had told her that he didn’t like the food he was served there, and she noticed her son’s friends gaining weight and eating junk food.
She was also personally interested in nutrition, as she had struggled with high blood pressure and cholesterol.
Nutrition class was “very helpful,” she said, because she was able to learn about food labels, healthy cooking and new recipes.
Since becoming involved, she’s changed her eating habits and takes every opportunity to spread the word about the easy changes she’s made, encouraging her sister-in-law and friends to swap whole milk and lard for low-fat milk and canola oil. When making these suggestions, she simply tells her personal story: that her blood pressure and cholesterol, once serious health problems for her, are back in a healthy range.
When Benita and her neighbors see the effects of the changes they are making at home, she says that they are reminded of how important it will be to see similar healthy changes at school.
“For kids to eat healthy, parents have to make changes and schools have to make changes too,” she said. “Now I see that it’s very important to eat healthy, learn, have a healthy life.”
GUADELUPE P.
“My involvement has been very important because it’s helped me grow as a person,” said Guadelupe, a parent who now exercises through Zumba dance classes at Otis School and advocates for healthy school environments through her role as a volunteer there. She became involved with community issues more than ten years ago as a way to move forward after a personal tragedy, and learned about wellness issues from a fellow volunteer.
Exercising with friends and learning about wellness has shaped her outlook on life and given her more energy, she said. As a parent, she wants her children to have the opportunity for a quality education, which includes a healthy environment that supports wellness and learning.
Her own experience speaks for itself: with dancing as with advocacy, she said, “you learn not to be shy, and that affects your self-worth.”
GUADELUPE N.
As a teaching assistant in the social studies classroom at her daughters’ school, Guadelupe sees every day how children behave and how their environment shapes their readiness to learn. What changes would she like to see in the school environment?
“More physical education plus more academic success,” she said. “The two go together, support each other.” Of course, she added, healthier school food with less fat would help as well.
To make these ideas a reality, she’s become one of the founding members of her school’s wellness team, with other parents and teachers. Her reason for getting involved is simple: “I like to help out,” she said. “And this is important.”
MARGARITA
“We cannot forget that the students are human beings,” said Margarita, who teachers Spanish language and culture to elementary school students at Otis School. Wellness, especially movement, is a key part of every day in her academic classroom.
“Yes, we dance in the classroom,” she explained. “To learn, to have active minds, we have to move it! Not just kids – we as teachers have to move it too.”
One of the parent dance and exercise classes that West Town Leadership United began providing in the community is located at Otis School, so Margarita brought the parents in to perform a dance demonstration for the students – and got the kids moving, too.
“We’re using it not only as exercise but to highlight the culture of the child,” she said. Pointing to a poster of fresh fruit labeled in Spanish, she explained that nutrition and food education are integrated into her curriculum with equal ease.
“This is a Spanish class, but when speaking Spanish, we can talk about anything,” she said. “We can talk about wellness, the importance of being active. We can talk about fruit and about the human body, about being healthy."
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