Obesity is a growing problem in the United States and in Houston, and studies have shown that obesity disproportionately affects low-income groups, due in part to a lack of accessible, affordable and healthy food options. In Houston, nearly one-third of all children are overweight, putting them at risk for later health problems such as heart disease, sleep apnea and depression. Health education is a useful tool for preventing unhealthy lifestyle habits.
The Nutrition Program is intended to improve the nutrition and health of the community through educating the children. The JCHH Nutrition Program includes six detailed and interactive lesson plans for children. Lessons include Introduction to Nutrition - Part I &II, Hypertensions, Diabetes, Obesity, and Organic Gardening and Community Involvement.
To promote healthy eating and learning in Houston's Fifth Ward and surrounding communities, the Hester House has partnered with the “Rice 360°: Institute for Global Health” at Rice University to advance nutrition education in local area schools and to build a community garden to make fresh produce more accessible. To learn more about the Rice 360° nutrition program click here.
Rice 360°works in partnership with communities around the world to design and implement novel and affordable technologies that prevent disease, improve health and reduce poverty. Integrating expertise in bioengineering, nanoscience, health and public policy, management, micro-entrepreneurship, and education, Rice 360° brings together highly focused technical solutions; new, sustainable systems of implementations; and the creativity of students and faculty, to improve the health of the world's most impoverished people. Beyond Traditional Borders is the undergraduate component of Rice 360° and is an interdisciplinary educational program that engages undergraduates from Rice University in finding solutions to the world's most pressing health problems, with the goal of creating a new generation of globally minded leaders in the field of health technology.
Keyhole Garden/Community Garden Project
Originally developed by CARE Zimbabwe for use by the chronically ill, keyhole gardens have proven an effective way to grow vegetables year round in semi-arid climates because if its moisture retention and soil nutrient enrichment. In the South African country of Lesotho, C-SAFE has promoted keyhole gardens among populations vulnerable to hunger and food insecurity as a way to improve household resiliency to external shocks, such as drought. The raised beds of the keyhole garden, surrounded by stones, with soil/manure/hay layers adding nutrients to the soil and retaining moisture, make the keyhole garden extremely productive - even in the cold, dry winter months. Rice 360° and the Energy Forum of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy demonstrated a keyhole garden, in the summer of 2009, at JCHH to be used in concert with the JCHH Nutrition Program for year-round plantings.