March is Nutrition Month and the time to begin practicing good eating habits is childhood. The following is a list of nutritional websites for children/youth; families can also enjoy them together.

Food Champs

The Supermarket Scavenger Hunt, Fruit & Veggie Matching Game, Healthy Choices Maze and Fruit & Vegetable Math are just some of the games and activities that children aged 2 to 8 years can play on the Food Champs website, which also offers recipes, art, colouring sheets and further activities designed to help children learn about nutrition and how/where our fruits and vegetables are grown.

Fruits & Veggies

Find recipes, games, activities and tips to get children interested and involved in healthy cooking, shopping and choosing healthy food choices (especially vegetables and fruits), and learning about nutrition.

Nourish Interactive : Nutrition

How can you teach and reinforce nutritional information for children in a fun way? You can click on this “one-stop” nutritional online resource! Fun and interactive, it offers various activities and info (such as a nutritional dictionary). There’s also a special section just for kids, one for parents and one for educators.

HINT :  The Stratford Public Library has a wealth of books about teen and children’s nutrition. Try Joanna Dolgoff’s Red Light, Green Light, Eat Right: The Food Solution that Lets Kids be Kids (613.2083 Dolgo), or read Jodi Huelin’s Why Can’t I Have Cake for Dinner? (JP Hueli) to your young child.
The Library also has online e-books on the subject, such as Clare Panchoo’s What’s In This? The Essential Parents’ Guide to What’s in Over 500 Popular Children’s Foods.

Fast Food Explorer

Students and adults alike may be very surprised to discover just how unhealthy many of our fast foods actually are.  Too often, “Fast food” means “fatty food”, complete with lots of sodium and many additives.  Nutritional facts about foods from some well-known restaurants are provided on this website.

The Healthy Refrigerator

With recent studies confirming that heart disease actually begins in childhood, this American Heart Association Kids’ website is especially timely.  Healthy recipes, quizzes, and lots of information about nutrition and heart health are provided in easy-to-understand language.

Tech Tip

Try Teen Health and Wellness, a reliable authoritative online health reference tool designed and written for teens. Covers self-help on topics such as diseases, drugs & alcohol, nutrition, mental and emotional health, cyber-literacy, family life, sexuality and more. All content is reviewed by leading professionals across fields including medicine, mental health, nutrition, substances abuse prevention, guidance and career counseling. Free access from within the library or from home or school by visiting the SPL Teen Lounge.

Nutrition Cafe

Students can choose between 3 fun interactive games to learn about nutrition, healthy foods and healthy meal planning on this web site, which is a joint project of the Pacific Science Center and the Washington State Dairy Council.

Fresh for Kids

When the New South Wales (Australia) Health Department discovered an alarmingly low level of fresh fruit/vegetable consumption among local children, it collaborated with a number of other groups to create this award-winning website to promote healthy foods (such as fruits and vegetables) and to offer activities and information to school-aged children (and parents) about nutrition, choosing healthy foods, and safe food preparation and storage.

Healthy Kids

With something for all ages of youth as well as for parents, caregivers and educators, “Healthy Kids” includes recipes, games and information about both healthy eating and healthy activities. (One section is devoted to Lunch Box Ideas.)

The Food Timeline

Food evolution can be a fascinating subject for students, and this timeline reveals when common foods, such as wheat, rice, ketchup, ice cream, breakfast cereals and many more, first appeared.  The name of each food is a clickable link to historical information about its development.

Interactive Food Guide - Canada

Intended for all ages, Canada’s Food Guide is available in English, French and ten additional languages. Frequently-asked questions, healthy habits and Canada’s Physical Activity Guide are included.

Upcoming Events

Computer Training

Computer training, from basic to advanced, is back. Visit the training web page for available session or call 519-271-0220 x31 for more information.

2011 Waterloo Lecture Series

Come to one of the FREE Waterloo Lectures in the Stratford Public Library Auditorium. In coordination with Stratford Institute, University of Waterloo. 7-9pm. On March 10, Joan Coutu will be talking about Landscapes and Tourism, specifically, defining Canada at Niagara Falls in the 1930s.

Thursday Noon Hour Club

The Thursday Noon Hour Club has been meeting regularly at the Stratford Public Library for over thirty years.  The presenters may be writers, performers, musicians, historians or people in business.  Most are local residents who generously volunteer their time to the "Noon Hour Club".  Admission is $1.00.  Coffee is available and feel free to bring your lunch.  Sessions are on Thursdays and begin at 12:00 noon. 

• March 3, A Musical Treat with "THE YOUNG AND THE REST OF US"
• March 10, LISA HODGETTS - Hunters of the Arctic's Archaelogical Past, University of Western Ontario
• March 17, MARIANNE BRANDIS, Author - Honouring Old Age
• March 24, QUIN MALOTT, Stratford Parks & Forestry Manager - Trees of Stratford and TERRY GRIGGS, Author - A Red Maple in the Forest of Reading
• March 31, WENDY HICKS - Counting Opinions and MELANIE KINDRACHUK, A Novel Prescription: Reading for the Health of It.

Good Book Group

Interested in reading a good book and getting together to talk about it? Join the Good Book Group. For March, read any mystery of your choice. Come to discuss a favourite mystery writer. Discussion is on March 22, 7pm at the Library.

Whale of a Tale

A FREE evening drop-in Family Story Time for preschoolers on Monday evenings from 6:30 - 7:15pm.  Bring your young ones in their pjs! Whale of a Tale is in the library auditorium.

Donation Day

The Library is happy to accept donations of gently used books, books on cd, compact discs and videos. Sorry, we cannot accept encyclopedia sets, text books, magazines or books which have been water damaged. For further information, contact the Library at 519-271-0220 ext. 34 or visit our donation page. Donations should be dropped off between 10am and 5pm at the back door of the library (off the parking lot). The next donation day is March 25.

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