The Big Challenge in Schools

It’s not too often that you see a 325-pound person encouraging others to lose weight. But that was the premise of a surprise hit reality television show on ABC this summer, “Shaq’s Big Challenge.”

Of course, the 325-pound celebrity spokesperson was 7-foot-1-inch Shaquille O’Neill, center for the Miami Heat.

I typically don’t watch reality TV, especially when the star is a celebrity, but after catching a few minutes of the show’s premiere I was hooked. The show centered on six middle-school students from the Broward County, Fla., Public Schools who were obese or morbidly obese. Shaq, along with a team of doctors, fitness experts and nutritionists, developed a program to increase the students’ physical activity level and decrease their junk food intake.

The show followed the kids over a nine-month period. At the start, they ranged from 182 pounds to 285 pounds and none of them were able to finish the President’s Physical Fitness Test. But by the season finale, they had lost a combined weight of 285 pounds – including one 11-year-old who lost 77 pounds. Even Shaq jumped on the bandwagon to knock off a few extra pounds.

Early on, Shaq met with the families of the students and toured their schools to see what they were eating. Not only were the students not eating fruits and vegetables, produce wasn’t even available to them in a healthy form. One 11-year-old boy told a nutritionist that he didn’t like bananas, then later admitted that he had never had one!

Shaq stated that his goal was not only to enhance the lives of the six participating students, but to use them as an example of a program that could be implemented across the state of Florida. He enlisted the help of Tyler Florence, celebrity chef seen on the Food Network, to create healthful menu options for the state’s schools – and while the program didn’t highlight fresh-cut produce, it did show promising opportunities by reading between the lines.

Florence took over a school cafeteria – which had been serving cardboard-like chicken patties – and made a healthful, fresh lunch meal. But school meals are a lot different than cooking for a restaurant, Florence found. The meals had to be quick to prepare and they had to be less than $1 a plate. His first attempts came in over budget and took too long to prepare, but with a little research I think he could have made the meal work. He had cafeteria workers cutting up produce, which could have been supplied by a fresh-cut processor to reduce time, and if the school purchased enough, the cost would probably be reduced.

But Florence’s chicken teriyaki was a success, and students at the school seemed to enjoy the healthful alternative. As childhood obesity becomes an even bigger issue in this country, I’m encouraged that there are celebrities making an effort to increase physical activity and lengthen the lives of children. Fresh-cut processors can be a part of this by working with schools to create healthy and quick menu items or side dishes that provide the daily nutrient requirements for growing children – because as “Shaq’s Big Challenge” showed, many kids aren’t receiving a balanced diet at home.



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