More than 250 students at JR Harris Elementary School, located in Houston, TX, participated in a Cinco de Mayo Celebration. Prairie View A&M University’s Cooperative Extension Program hosted the event on Thursday, May 5, 2022. 

The journey to this celebration began when JR Harris Elementary School’s Wrap Around Specialist Gloria Lopez reached out to the CEP Program Coordinator, Nkem Anyasinti, about conducting a nutrition education program for the students in the first through fifth grades. FCH agents Whitney Mack and Jamyah Hill began a Choose Health: Food, Fun, Fitness series for grades 1-5 every Wednesday, from February 2 to March 9 and the classes were approximately 280 students. 

Students enjoyed the program series so much that FCH agents Mack and Hill decided to start another series on March 23 titled: A Taste of Latin Heritage for grades 3-5 and MyPlate series for grades 1-2. The Cinco de Mayo Celebration was in honor of all the students’ hard work and a great way to end the last series. FCH agent Whitney Mack commented, “it has truly been an honor to be able to educate almost 300 students in a day about nutrition and Latin heritage.” 

The agents created three stations for students to explore during the celebration. At station one, the students could make their maracas using quinoa, wild rice, spoons, colorful duct tape, small round containers, and fun stickers for decoration. At station two, the students were offered takeaways: T-shirts, planners, informational flyers about Latin American heritage, and CEP branded hand sanitizers. The students gathered to make pineapple-mango smoothies at station three using CEP’s Smoothie Bike. The recipe included low-fat yogurt, milk, mango, and pineapple. 

CEP’s Mobile Kitchen unit also made a debut. The FCH agents served corn tostadas, topped with sour cream, shredded chicken, and green salsa with guacamole and red salsa on the side. Samples of turkey taco lettuce wraps with ground turkey cooked in chicken broth, and tomato paste topped with Mexican cheese, red onions, cilantro, and avocado were also served. 

The team of FCH agents visited students at JR Harris at least once during the series. The students were receptive to meeting new faces from CEP and were excited to see them at this event. CEP would like to give special recognition to team members Sylvia Gonzalez from EFNEP, Carley Howell and Garrett Rhyne from AGNR, Aubrion Edwards from 4H, and Alfredo Alberto from FCH for their contributions to the success of the programs. 

Aricie Piton
Communication Specialist
arpiton@pvamu.edu
(713) 797-7033