Download this press release as a PDF. In late January 2019, Asian Pacific Islander Forward Movement (APIFM) launched multiple healthy eating workshop series at Castelar Elementary School in Los Angeles’s Chinatown neighborhood. Each series is at least six weeks long, and aims to promote healthy eating behaviors such as increasing fruit and vegetable intake, reducing sugar intake, and choosing whole, unprocessed foods more often. The workshop series are currently offered in three first grade classes, two second grade classes, four third grade classes, and two fifth grade classes. APIFM nutrition educators now visit classes on a regular basis to lead interactive nutrition curriculum and healthy recipe-making. In several series, the curriculum also integrates basic gardening skills to teach students how vegetables are grown.


“This program educates our students on eating and living a healthier life. The hands-on activities get our students motivated to make things on their own,” shared Castelar Principal Wing Fung.

These workshops are part of APIFM’s broader Healthy Eating & Active Living (HEAL) program, which is made possible by funding from Los Angeles County Department of Public Health’s Champions for Change – Healthy Communities Initiative. Champions for Change aims to improve the health of families and communities in California, especially those that are at greater risk of obesity, high blood pressure, and type 2 diabetes.