Fruity Friday helping kids learn about healthy lifestyle habits
By carving a banana into a dolphin in a few simple steps, the fruit can both look fun and be a tasty snack.
Children at the Singapore Muslim Women's Association (PPIS) Child Development Centre in Bukit Batok yesterday learnt ways to make fruits look more appealing, creating banana dolphins, watermelon pizza and fruit kebab caterpillars.
The idea is to instil healthy eating habits in children, including learning about the nutritional value of fruits, tasting them and learning how to make them look more enticing.
Mr Amrin Amin, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Home Affairs, attended the session and joined the children in learning more about healthy lifestyle habits.
Pupils at the Bukit Batok centre range from those in their first year of playgroup to Kindergarten 2, and are aged between 18 months and six years old.
Mr Amrin shared with them the Health Promotion Board's My Healthy Plate concept, in which a well-balanced meal would see half the plate filled with fruits and vegetables and a quarter with wholegrain foods, such as brown rice or wholemeal bread. The rest should include food such as meat, fish, bean products and nuts.
At the event, PPIS launched the Fruity Friday initiative, which is targeted at children and their families to learn more about the importance of including fruits in their diet.
Children at the Bukit Batok centre, where the initiative is being piloted, will bring a fruit to school every Friday.
Fruity Friday will be introduced in the other six PPIS Child Development Centres in the last quarter of this year.
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