News
June 15, 2018Crossroads Center for Children Is Asking For Your Help!
Crossroads Center for Children asks for the help of our local media connections to share good news effecting the students, families and employees of the school.
Crossroads has received a grant from Allen Foundation, Inc. which will support the school’s Healthy Food Program. The program is aimed at helping children tolerate new and healthy foods, an important area to address with the young students who attend the school. The grant will allow the school to purchase foods and ingredients for recipes that the students can make and try within their classrooms. The children learn about food nutrition, sources, and preparation through the program.
An excerpt from the grant proposal reads, “The importance of the intake of healthy food to a person’s nutrition is obvious, yet so many of our students lack this. Now, more than ever, children in our whole nation are eating more non-nutritional foods and drinks, and families are challenged with childhood obesity, poor dental and physical health, and unhealthy eating habits.
Add to this the fact that the autism rate is growing rapidly, and the fact that students with autism are particularly noted to have difficulties with food and eating. Children with autism frequently suffer from hyper-sensitivity to stimuli, and common effects of this include food aversions, and food rigidities. When a child will eat only certain foods, a huge deficit in nutritional intake occurs. Poor nutritional habits are life-long unless the pattern is interrupted and redirected.”
Allen Foundation, Inc. was established in 1975 by William Webster Allen, an agricultural chemist. The foundation makes grants to projects that benefit human nutrition in the areas of education, training and research.
This is the first grant made to Crossroads by The Allen Foundation, and Crossroads is thrilled to receive this support.
