Home Educational insightsA Postcard from Hyderabad Public School: Healthy eating

A Postcard from Hyderabad Public School: Healthy eating

Posted: 01 February 2021

Lead School:

Hyderabad Public School

Participating Schools: 

Overview

The Hyderabad Public School Begumpet conducted a Round Square postcard on the 16th of September 2020 on the topic “Let food be thy medicine.” The event was designed to discuss the science and practice of healthy eating.

The event was organized by RS Rep Ms. Reena Singh and the student organizers – Maheen Rida, Sanchi Garg, and Pranav Neela along with a guest speaker, a nutritionist, Dr. Nida.

Planning

Some student leaders at HPSB had the experience of hosting other events in the past and enjoyed the experience. Others with no experience saw it as a way of learning new skills. The planning started only a month prior to the actual event. During the planning phase, student leaders had to do a lot of research related to healthy foods and a healthy lifestyle.  Some learned that they, themselves should make certain changes to their diets to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

They also had to analyse the different types of people that were expected to attend and work to ensure they designed something that would provoke a healthy discussion among the participants.

The students conducted meetings and rehearsals throughout the last week to make sure everything would go according to plan. The students had to find a balance between content and entertainment in order to have the postcard be as productive as possible.

Details

Ahead of time, Student leaders asked participants to send in pictures of food, recipes, or tips for a healthy lifestyle of their choice. These were put into a PowerPoint presentation to stimulate discussion during the event. Students also made PowerPoint presentations as an introduction to the topic and for the conclusion of the event as well.

The event started off with the student leader, Sanchi, introducing us to the topic and to the organizers of the event. She introduced various topics including eating disorders, child obesity, and steps to a healthy lifestyle that would be expanded during the event. Next, there was a discussion round led by student leader Pranav. This allowed the student participants who had sent in pictures to talk about their choices. During this round, they gave everyone a chance to introduce themselves and speak more about their entries.

Following the discussion round, the students introduced their special guest Dr. Nida, a nutritionist whose students refer to her as a ‘food doctor’. She elaborated on the theme of the postcard “Let food be thy medicine.” She spoke about Functional foods; The two categories of Functional foods containing – Natural foods and Modified foods, stressing the advantages of unmodified food over processed food. The student leaders did not receive pictures from all participants but still wanted to include them and give them a chance to speak, so they posed questions about diets, lifestyles, and much more, and all of the participants were able to answer actively.

After the discussion of the entries, the leaders conducted a Question and Answer round for the participants. The answers to the questions were given by Dr. Nida. The participants asked a lot of relevant questions and Dr. Nida answered all of them leaving no question unanswered. After the student participants had finished asking questions, the student leaders asked the faculty members to participate by asking any questions they might have for Dr. Nida.

The event was concluded by student leader Maheen, who summarised the whole program and shared some valuable tips for the promotion of a healthy lifestyle. She talked about how a healthy body plus a healthy mind, equals a happy life.

Challenges

The major challenge encountered was that not all participants responded to the request to send in material ahead of time. This made it hard to include everyone in the event.

To solve this problem, the student leaders came up with different questions for each of the participants whose contribution was not received. For example, they were asked to respond to questions like “Are all types of fruits and vegetables good for you, or are there some that may be unhealthy?”, “Are you in favor of drinking water after every meal? What is the right time to drink water?”, “Which food items do you take that are medicinal in properties?” and more.

Students learned from the prework assignments and from the event itself that every culture and each individual has a different perspective on having a healthy life. For some it is, consuming ghee, green vegetables, multigrain bread, etc., while for some it can be starving themselves to look fit, and also for some it might be exercising and maintaining a proper diet. It was an interesting challenge to bring these views together in a coherent way.

Impact 

Student leaders felt that they learned how to manage an event and overcome challenges faced along the way.

They learned about the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle; good foods to eat, foods to avoid, portion size, and overall what is best for health.

Long Term Outcomes

Student leaders felt that the most important outcome of this event was that everyone participating learned the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Student leaders felt they learned a lot by listening carefully to all voices.

The student leaders loved the opportunity they had to design this postcard and would love to do something similar again.

Advice

Student leaders said that a spirit of co-operation amongst the organizing team and the willingness to work hard with rehearsals were the keys to running a successful event. They also believed that it was essential to have fun while doing it.

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