Courtesy photo.
VENTURA — Kaiser Permanente presented Students for Eco-Education and Agriculture (SEEAG) a $10,000 community health grant during SEEAG’s annual Ventura County Farm Day on November 4. The donation will help fund SEEAG’s Ventura County Youth Wellness Initiative.
SEEAG’s Youth Wellness Initiative addresses the nutrition knowledge gaps and food insecurity among a diverse socioeconomic demographic of students in Ventura County, with a focus on Title 1 elementary schools. SEEAG’s program is designed to inspire and empower students to increase the amount of locally-grown fruits and vegetables they eat while improving overall healthy eating habits and increasing physical activity. Since the program began in 2020, SEEAG has reached 15,500 third graders who participated in hands-on nutrition education during in-class learning and monthly Farm Fresh Wellness Fairs.
Each participating student receives a Wellness Swag Bag filled with nutrition information, a jump rope and fruit and vegetable samples that they can share with their families.
“Nearly 20 percent of children are obese in America,” says Mary Maranville, SEEAG’s founder and CEO. “It’s critical that we teach kids at a young age about the importance of healthy eating and exercise so they can apply this knowledge throughout their lives. SEEAG’s Youth Wellness Initiative is possible with the generous support from organizations such as Kaiser Permanente.”
To learn more about SEEAG, go to www.SEEAG.org or contact Maranville at mary@seeag.org, 805-892-8155.
About SEEAG — Founded in 2008, Students for Eco-Education and Agriculture (SEEAG) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that aims to help young students understand the origins of their food by bridging the gap between agriculture and consumption through its agricultural education programming. SEEAG’s “The Farm Lab” program teaches schoolchildren about the origins of their food and the importance of local farmland by providing schools with classroom agricultural education and free field trips to farms. Through this and other SEEAG programs, over 100,000 elementary school students in Central and Southern California have increased their understanding of the food journey. For more information, visit www.seeag.org or email Mary Maranville at mary@seeag.org.