“Healthy Living Long Island” – a partnership with FIME and ZSOM to encourage medical students to learn by teaching children.
The partnership was a logical extension of NCSS projects confronting childhood obesity and other nutrition-related problems in Roosevelt, the county’s poorest community. The FIME grant and guidance enabled ZSOM to expand the mission and scope of its HLLI program which teaches children healthy lifelong habits from an early age. In 2018, medical students in ZSOM’s Community Service Club first collaborated with the principal at the Barack Obama Elementary School in Hempstead, New York to get the program started, adapting key portion of Maine’s model Let’s Go! It was an immediate hit among medical and elementary students.
Currently, HLLI includes 2 introductory classroom visits to 3rd graders; 1 kickoff event at ZSOM itself; 1 final reinforcement lesson at the elementary school. This program, to begin its fourth year of existence, is capped off with a health fair at the elementary school for students and their families. Because of its popularity in Hempstead, and the need to deal with health disparities in other diverse communities, we believe – and are seeking support – HLLI has enormous potential for replication and expansion to other school districts, such as Roosevelt.
Zucker School of Medicine Students Encourage Healthy Habits for Grade Schoolers