It is a known fact that children have shunned away from Fruits and Vegetables, preferring fast food over  them. Vegetables & fruits need not be boring. To build the habit of using fruits &  vegetables more often, we introduced  Mr. Fruito & Ms. Veggie activity under our our fruit & veg program ‘Glow & Grow with Fruits & Veggies’. This is a monthly activity and to make this activity more interesting, we have organised a series of short activities for our students this month.

We started this month’s activities with a short speech given by the Science Club President Hussain Izaan (8A) at the school assembly on 2nd September 2014. He introduced the fruit & veggie for this month by giving some benefits of both. He also announced the short activities planned for the month and then requested all students and staff to use fruits & veggies in our diet as often as we can.

Remembering Izaan’s speech:
“The Mr. Fruito hired  for the month of September is Mr. Orange, which is a common  and relatively cheap fruit now in Maldives, although it is not locally grown. The benefits of oranges  are numerous. As we all know, oranges are rich in Vitamin C. It is also known as a fruit which has  fiber, Vitamin B , folate, potassium, copper and calcium. These are all essential substances for you all to grow. Mr.Orange also protects the heart and cardio vascular system, keeps teeth and bones healthy, regulates blood pressure, lowers cholesterol, and protects the kidneys.
What could we do more? Eat it raw, eat it fresh, or squeeze it and have a juice. Or make a salad to your taste.
The Ms. Veggie for this month is Ms. Cabbage. There are couple of colours of cabbage.  Cabbages are good source to maintain weight, regulate blood pressure  & sugar, and relieve headaches. They can be eaten raw in Salads,cooked in curries, stir fries or even baked.”

During the first week of September, students prepared posters on healthy facts about oranges and cabbages. These poster were very colourful and done creatively. The posters were also displayed outside the classes. Other activities planned include:
making a salad during the break and lunch times using either orange or cabbage
making a leaflet about the benefits of oranges and cabbages
bringing a food item containing either orange or cabbage and sharing it in respective classes
monitoring the Thursday break times and preparing statistics on the intake of orange and cabbage at school

As introduced in the whole program, a census will be taken to see how much students take orange and cabbage in their diets. For this, a census form is given to each student. With the help of parents, students are going to fill the census from at home. Once students complete the form, the Science Club students will analyse and share the statistics on the intake of orange and cabbage.