Healthy eating habits topic of student-produced Kinect 6 Extreme video series in Mobile

Mobile County Health Department Social and Nutritional Programs staff members

Rachel Myers and Dana Herazo pick up healthy snacks after the premier of the

Kinect Extreme 6 video series at the Crescent Theater in downtown Mobile on Sept. 20, 2014.

  

MOBILE, Alabama -- Dozens gathered on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2014, for the premier of Kinect Extreme 6, a series of short videos starring local public school students presented at the Crescent Theater in downtown Mobile.  With messages about healthy eating and exercise habits, the audience watched as the local teens acted out real-life situations that offered suggestions on how to make better nutritional choices.

The Kinect Extreme 6 series is a project of the Junior League of Mobile and the Mobile County Public School System, in collaboration with the Mobile County Health Department and the University of South Alabama. In August, MCHD Social and Nutritional Programs staff members visited three area middle schools to weigh and measure more than 550 sixth-grade students as part of an initiative with other agencies to determine the extent of obesity challenges facing area youth.

MCHD has partnered with Junior League of Mobile, the University of South Alabama and the Mobile County Public School System to conduct an assessment study to determine the outcome of evidence-based nutritional and fitness program intervention in sixth-grade students in Mobile County.
"We are working together to combat unhealthy eating," said Tabitha Olzinski, the Nutrition and Assessment Chair for Junior League of Mobile. "Middle school is a time when students really start making their own choices about what they want to eat. We want to help them learn about healthier options."

The assessment will be created by compiling data taken from sixth-grade students and implementing evidence-based programs at three local middle schools. Data collection methods include pre and post participant surveys to gauge nutrition knowledge, demographics, nutrition choices and weight measurement assessments.

Junior League of Mobile will implement the nutrition and fitness program at two area middle schools to students who have permission from their parents to take part. JLM also will implement an evidence-based program called Planet Health through the JLM Kids in the Kitchen program at a third middle school.  The student-produced videos will be shown to students at some of the schools taking part in the project.