Green Bronx Machine

The past two days I have been doing courses for my job role as a QA Tech and today the course was CIEH Level 2 in Special Diets & Healthy Eating. This was pretty interesting as courses go, it is surprising what you don't know. Our lecturer asked us to list as many vitamins & minerals as we could and what sources you can obtain them from, for example: 

Mineral Or Vitamin     

Iron  - Source -  Red Meat, Spinach, Broccoli, Sprouts, 

Calcium - Source -  Milk, Cheese, Eggs, Broccoli, Cabbage, Sardines or Pilchards. 

V-C - Source - Oranges, Strawberries, Blackcurrants, Sprouts, Broccoli
V-A - Source - Cheese, Eggs, Oily fish such as - Mackerel, Milk, Yogurt

V-E -  Source - Nuts & seeds               

It was a lot more difficult than I imagined to know what vitamins and minerals we need and even harder still to know which foods we need to eat to obtain them, which is something we all take for granted, and not many of us consider or think about when we are shopping or preparing a meal.  

We also watched a video of a man called Stephen Ritz at a conference. He has developed a way of helping children in the poverty stricken part of the Bronx grow their own food and earn an income with his own unique concept. He wants to help children get the right nutrients from their diets by being able to grow these things themselves beings many families cannot afford to buy these products due to bad economy, job loss, and lack of education. 

South Bronx
25% - Unemployment
40% - Living in Poverty
$20K - Median Income

He predominately works in schools where there are a high number of children with some form of disability or are from foster homes or even homeless.

70% of children have able learning disability that could have been prevented had they had the correct prenatal nutrition. Which is a staggering number, and therefore drives his passion for educating the young minds and improving the lives of all these young people, as well educating adults on how to provide a healthy lifestyle for themselves and their families. 

Attendance rose from 40% to 93% in schools since this project launched in the Bronx. How rewarding to know that these kids are learning, becoming healthy nutritious young people and enjoying themselves while doing so!  

I've attached the video for his talk below for you to see, it's just brilliant. This man is making a huge positive change for not only this generation but future generations too.