Russellville Elementary and West Elementary Schools, with the help of Dady’s Roasted Corn, hosted the annual “Corn Day” on Monday. The event is sponsored by the Child Nutrition Program, which uses the day to promote healthier eating habits to the students.
According to the Center for Disease Control, approximately 60 percent of children do not eat the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables. Elaine Vaughn, the Child Nutrition Program Director at Russellville City Schools said the event aims to help combat that problem.
“Small kids don’t really seem to like vegetables or think about eating healthy a lot,” she said. “This is a fun, educational way to encourage them to eat more fruits and vegetables.”
At West Elementary, students were greeted by the Dady’s Roasted Corn mascot Ms. Cornella.
“Oh, the kids love seeing Ms. Cornella,” Vaughn said.
On both campuses, booths were set up to hand out freshly roasted cobs of corn. Dady’s Roasted Corn roasts and provides hundreds of ears of corn for students, teachers and faculty to enjoy during the school day. It is a big hit every year.
“The kids and the teachers look forward to it,” Vaughn said. “It’s an opportunity for students to get a chance to eat something good they may not get to eat all the time. A lot of students have told me before they didn’t like corn before, but they did after eating some roasted corn at this thing.”
The corn on the cob also serves as a nice pre-exercise snack.
“We give the students the corn during P.E. so they can eat their corn and burn it off playing right after,” Vaughn said.
Like they have for nearly the last decade, Vaughn and RCS’s Child Nutrition Program hope to continue Corn Day in the future.
“We definitely love doing this every year,” she said. “It’s fun for us and for the kids.”
