As the founder of Brooksfield, I have always felt it was my duty to keep learning and growing as a person so that I could share those interests with the students through programs that we have designed to keep Brooksfield on the cutting edge. Interests in Outdoor Adventures, photography, sustainability, organic gardening, social development outside the Montessori classroom and team building to name a few.
Over the past several years I have worked with a group of women named The Citizens for Community Wellness who work together to build better lifestyle options for our McLean community. We held Green Day last year in an attempt to educate our families about healthier and better choices available for our children’s health, exercise and home life.
We also introduced you last year to better nutrition through classes taught by Anita Capizzi RN and health counselor. Some of you continued your time with her and ended with cooking classes at my home. All in all a wonderful experience where we all grew together in our understanding of eating whole foods and how that equates to better health.
This year, I have become a student at The Institute for Integrative Health. I am pursuing a degree in Health Coaching/Counseling. This course will take a year and while I am learning a lot about food choices and how it correlates to health, it is educating me how to make better snack and food choices for our students at Brooksfield. I do feel we are all connected and that the well being of one is good for all and the well being of the whole group is our goal.
I have already targeted items at Trader Joe’s that will be better for our kids. I am working with our Brooksfield team to identify seasonal items that will change throughout the year that will fill our children with less additives, chemicals and fillers that really are not good for their building bodies.
We take such care and pride in our educational, social, emotional, spiritual and physical education that the area of nutrition needed our attention.
I invite you to contact me to talk about health concerns as we continue to improve our lifelong devotion to making Brooksfield a healthy, happy and harmonious place for our children to grow, learn and thrive. I do believe that this is an inside job so continuing classes this year will be developed for our families and staff. My heart goes out to our parents as you and your children are bombarded with strong and effective marketing that makes buying sugary cereals and empty macaroni and cheese the easy solution. I am hearing from our moms that dinner is on the fly and not a sit down event. Kids are screaming for what they see on TV and the current marketing tells you its ok because it is somehow fortified. I ask you to read more and dig deeper and to use your own common sense. Should a cupcake have 50 ingredients? Most of which you can not pronounce and don’t know what it is? Check out the labels the next time you go to pick up packaged food for your family.
The simple truth is always so easy to grasp but often difficult to execute, so let’s work together: Eat whole foods that come from nature, avoid processed and chemically altered foods. Eat local and organic when you can. Eat seasonally and stay in touch with nature. That is how children prefer to live. We can take our cue from them!
Love to hear from you and talk about this new exciting development at Brooksfield! Working together is easier than trying to do it alone. I have grocery lists of good food items and suggestions that might make the task a bit easier to swallow! maduffus@aol.com
