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Midway Hills Primary School (MHPS) received a $5,000 Georgia Shape Grant administered by the Department of Public Health.
“The Georgia Shape Grant is an opportunity for us to receive funds to promote health, promote socialization and connect STEAM even more in the classroom for both our teachers and students,” said Tara Burney, Midway Hills Primary principal.
STEAM teacher and Shape School Champion Katrina Veal will be leading the grant efforts.
The grant promotes the increase or enhancement of physical activity and nutrition in a school system. According to Burney and Veal, Midway Hills Primary School will be using the grant to promote health in students and staff by planning physical activities, promoting more STEAM labs and teaching everyone about nutrition and food to support food insecurity in the Baldwin County community.
“For STEAM certification, you have to solve a real-world problem. Our second graders were actually the ones who proposed hunger,” said Veal. “So, through project based learning, we are helping to solve this problem through education and activity which the Georgia Shape Grant ties directly into.”
With the grant’s help, students will be more involved with the Farmto- School program that allows them to work in the gardens and they will be able to start using hydroponics to grow food inside the classroom. There will also be taste-testing sessions that will allow students to learn more about nutritional foods and try a range of fruits, vegetables and more that they have not eaten before.
“We are using this chance to do what we need for our community and to support students and staff,” said Veal. “We see there is food insecurity in a lot of the homes in our county and I know how much shopping for groceries can cost. So, we are going to use the grant to teach students how to be self-sufficient in the event that they need to grow their own food and what types of foods they need for a balanced meal.”
Teachers will also benefit from the grant. Soon, all teachers will be provided with a Fit Bit that will record their steps. Through a friendly competition, teachers may be awarded gift cards to buy groceries or go out to eat for having the most steps at the end of the year. This reward acts as an incentive to stay active but also ties in again to solving food insecurity. In addition, the school will be hosting after-school activities such as line dancing and group walks to promote physical activity and bonding among staff.
“Our goal is to make sure that we have at least 50 percent of our staff members participate in some after-school activities,” said Burney. “Everything we are planning is not just to promote physical health but to work on mental health and the sense of community within our school as well.”
All activities being planned will include a social aspect to help build necessary skills that were held back by the pandemic. Social aspects may include open discussion, working in teams, engaging in group activities and just letting the students and teachers interact while increasing nutritional knowledge and nurturing physical skills.
“We found that our kids are eager to learn but that the socialization piece is a bit of a struggle since COVID,” said Burney. “It is vitally important that we teach them how to communicate in a positive manner, give them time to interact and learn how to socialize with peers and offer time for them to interact with people they have not seen in a while.”
These new plans will be implemented into the school, most likely, during the next semester. Both Veal and Burney expressed excitement for the Georgia Shape Grant and for the positive impact they foresee it having on both the teachers’ and students’ lives.