Fleetwood families enjoyed healthier food choices with trays of fresh fruit in a rainbow of color, veggies, and 15 pounds of parfait.
Penelope Pea, aka Heather Kambakis, led children through tours of the produce department, while Gail Garmer, deli manager, told unusual facts about foods during Be Healthy Kids Day at Boyers Market in Fleetwood.
‘That is cute. They all just kind of stare at me, but it’s neat because they really get a kick out of it. I keep saying they need to eat their peas and I ask them if they like peas and if they don’t like peas, they don’t like me so I’m hoping that they say they like me,’ said Kambakis.
The May 4 event, offered by Boyers Market and Boyer’s Busy B’s Relay For Life Team, was held to educate parents and youth to eat a little healthier.
‘What I found very, very interesting were these kids know more about fruits and vegetables and they’re willing to eat a tomato,’ said Garmer. ‘It’s amazing. The parents are doing a really good job of the fruits and vegetables compared to, I guess, what I did and what a lot of parents did 20 years ago.’
Penelope Pea’s mom, Gayle Davidson, Leesport, said, ‘Heather’s in her 30s and when we ate, we ate to eat. As she got older, she learned to do that on her own. She got her daughter, Melanie, into that too.
Davidson said that at her age, she had to make changes in her eating habits. She gave up pizza and deep-fried foods entirely and began to lose weight. She said it took six months to adjust to her new eating habits.
Although the kids may be a little savvier than 20 years ago, they learned a few new facts from Garmer.
The heaviest tomato was seven pounds twelve ounces in Oklahoma in 1986; that’s the size of three cantalopes.
The biggest tomato tree is located at Walt Disney World producing 32,000 tomatoes and weighing approximately 1,151 pounds.
The longest carrot was found in 1996. It was 16 feet, 10 and half inches long. Twelve inches of the root was coming out of the ground.
Eating three long carrots will give you enough energy to walk three miles.
Bunches of bananas are called hands.
Garmer estimated at least 50 kids had visited half way through the event.
While the market was conducting tours and samples inside, the Relay Team was selling healthier versions of pizza and fruit cups outside along with hosting a book sale, fund raising for the American Cancer Society. The Relay Team also set out nutritional pamphlets from the ACS for good eating and smart living.
‘We’ve had really good response from people’ said Gloria Bubbenmoyer, employee and Relay Team member. ‘People didn’t know Boyer’s has a Relay Team. Their response is really, really good.’
The team plans on selling more at a Memorial Day Hot Dog event and then whatever is left over will be donated to a library.
To learn more about making healthier choices, go to http://www.cancer.org/healthy/index.