Ask a child in Waldo County what 5-2-1-0 stands for and most of them know: 5 – eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day; 2 – limit recreational screen time (TV, computers, iPads, etc.) to 2 hours a day; 1 – get 1 hour of physical activity a day; and 0 – for 0 sugary drinks a day.
They’ve most likely been exposed to 5-2-1-0 Let’s Go! Waldo at school, their daycare or their doctor’s office.
To help children and their parents remember 5-2-1-0 this summer, a banner with drawings for each of the four messages has been created. Known as “Where in Waldo is the 5-2-1-0 banner?,” the banner was hung in various locations that provide opportunities to live the message.
The first location was Belfast City Park; a place where the whole family can have fun and get that hour of physical activity for free. Children and their families can swim in the pool, play basketball, horseshoes or a tennis game, walk along the beach, go for a swing, slide and climb on the playground to name a few.
But the 5-2-1-0 banner won’t stay at Belfast City Park all summer. It will travel to other locations where one of the four messages can be met. So keep your eyes open and see “Where in Waldo is the 5-2-1-0 banner?”
To learn more about 5-2-1-0 Let’s Go, visit www.letsgo.org.
A second banner has popped up
A second Let’s Go! 5-2-1-0 banner has popped up in Waldo County. That banner can be found at the Walker Elementary School in Liberty where children are learning to grow their own vegetables.
Christine Gall, the FoodCorps Service Member for RSU 3, is leading the Summer Garden Camp at Walker Elementary School, left. To the right are campers, Sophia King and Emily Richards. The carrots and beets are for the farm stand.
Christine Gall, FoodCorps Coordinator for RSU 3, is leading the five-week Walker Elementary Garden Summer Camp. The 24 campers are growing vegetables and herbs, taking cooking classes with health educator Beth Chamberlain, learning about nutrition, and playing active games.
Each camper is also producing a cookbook, in which they color and record the recipe for each new snack or lunch they help create. Those recipes include the veggies and herbs from their greenhouse and raised bed gardens.
Camper Oden Pontillo, who will be going into the first grade this fall, works on his cookbook.
Just pulled carrots are the campers’ favorite and they ask to be able to eat them. One day they made a snack of fragrant basil and crackers and rated the taste with thumbs up, middle, or down. Four of the 11 campers gave the basil a thumb ups with such comments as “epic,” “very tasty” and “fantastic.” Some of the others were less sure they liked the strong herb flavor.
In addition to attending the Summer Garden Camp, two of the campers are operating a farm stand in front of the school on Monday and Wednesday afternoons from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. They sell fresh vegetables on a “pay what you can” method to help provide fresh food to their community. The farm stand, which is run by students Sophia King and Madison Paradis, grew out of the service learning project they participated in during the school year and their understanding of the value of eating at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day.