Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 9, Number 4, 1 April 1992 — ALU LIKE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ALU LIKE

(presented by Ka Wai Ola O OHA and Alu Like as a puhlie s ewiee)

Nutrition program

The Alu Like Business Development Center has joined the James and Abigail Campbell Foundation, Hawai'i Nutrition Council, Department of Health's Community Chronic Disease Prevention Program and Wai'anae High School in a project to promote nutrition, healthy eating and entrepreneurship. "Business of a Healthy Heart" is an alternative health education program for students attending Wai'anae High School. The goal of the program is to help Wai'anae High School students achieve their potential to become healthy, successful adults. Through this program students in select food service and food nutrition classes at Wai'anae High School are preparing healthy, nutritious snacks to be sold on campus as an alternative to junk food commonly purchased and consumed. To facilitate sales, AIu Like was asked to help organize the students into functioning small businesses so that students could leam business principles in addition to good health and fitness. Alu Like business assistance project manager, Vonn Logan, spent several classroom hours at Wai'anae High School instructing 58 students on marketing, production planning, management and organization, business planning and bookkeeping. Students experimented with different recipes and projects that would be appealing for sale to students. One company, for example, plans to produce turkey hash, a substitute business for the popular, but fattening, pork hash. Turkey contains less calories, one-third the fat and one-half the saturated fat of regular pork sui mai. Other products being sold included energy bars, raisin oat bars, vegetarian pizza and eoeoa brownies. All recipes were to meet criteria for a nutritious snack: low fat, high fiber, moderate use of sodium and sugar and ono. Sales are conducted on campus during the morning and afternoon recesses and after school. In addition to the on-campus sales, the students were asked to cater a pupu party for the Hawai'i Heart Association's Leeward board meeting in February. Wai'anae High School has a good percentage of Native Hawaiian students who, as a group, have been medically rated as at abnormally high risk for certain chronic disease. Statistics show that more Native Hawaiians die from heart disease, diabetes, stroke and cancer compared to people of other ethnic groups. As this usually occurs during the adult years, preventative intervention must start at an early age. Preliminary review of health screening at Wai'anae High School reveals that most students do not show early signs or risk of heart disease or stroke. Forty-six of 286 students had high cholesterol, 23 of 239 students had high blood pressure and 106 of 293 students had high body fat levels. The "Business of a Healthy Heart" program hopes to provide students with alternative eeonomie opportunities. It is estimated that 400-600 students (20-30 percent of the 1,981 enrolled this school year) will fail or

drop out from school before graduation. Only 25 percent of the students are community eollege or university bound. Through "Business of a Healthy Heart," students are introduced to entrepreneurship. They learn that starting their own business is an option if they are creative, committed and organized. Part of the profits generated from eaeh business will be used for an end-of-the-year banquet and awards ceremony for all participating students. The balance of funds will be budgeted for next year's project, and scholarships for students seeking post-secondary education in the health and/or food service industries.