35 · OAKVILLE BEAVER Friday, March 27, 2009 Dads and kids mixed food and fun at drop-in cooking class E very March, for 28 years, dietitians in Canada have celebrated Nutrition Month. But the message is essential all year, especially for kids. The Canada Council on Food and Nutrition, in a 2008 report looking at ways to prevent early childhood obesity, said that parents play a key role especially in early childhood. Here in our own community, creative thinkers are finding new ways to get healthy eating messages out to parents. Last fall, the Oakville Parent-Child Centre offered a cooking class for dads and their kids. They turned a drop-in offered to dads on Saturdays into a fun and friendly class in food selection and preparation. Nikki Taylor, parent education manager at the Oakville Parent-Child Centre, says encouraging good nutrition was the overall goal. During the class, public health dietitian Jessica Mackay from the Halton Region Health Department talked with dads and a professional chef was on hand to help prepare the food. "It was important for us to have the element of healthy eating," she says. "It was a mixture of fun and learning." The centre held the class on two Saturdays and reached about 25 families. Funding for it came from Choices 4 Health in partner- ship with the Halton Healthy School Nutrition Environment Nutrition Action Grants and the Our Kids Network Hub. Choices 4 Health is a community coalition of more than 250 individuals and organiza- tions working together to create a Halton in which people achieve optimum health by choosing opportunities for healthy eating, physical activity, good mental health and smoke-free living. Choices 4 Health is funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion, and supported by community partners and Halton's Health Department. -- Submitted by Choices for Health The Regional Municipality of Halton www.halton.ca PUBLIC NOTICE Proposed Widening Upper Middle Road (Regional Road 38) from west of Sutton Drive to Burloak Drive (Regional Road 21), and Burloak Drive from QEW to Upper Middle Road City of Burlington/Town of Oakville Project File: PR-2224B/PR-2346 The Planning and Public Works Committee for the Regional Municipality of Halton proposes at its meeting on Wednesday, April 15, 2009 at 9:30 a.m. to recommend to Regional Council at its meeting of Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 9:30 a.m. to Drive to Burloak Drive and Burloak Drive from QEW to Upper Middle Road. Construction drawings showing the works may be reviewed at the Public Works & Toll Free: Email: 1-866-4HALTON (1-866-442-5866) Joseph.Choi@halton.ca Mitch Zamojc, P. Eng., SUTTON DR RD UPPER MIDDLE ) (REG. RD. 38 MAINWAY Q.E.W. 270309 1151 Bronte Road, Oakville, Ontario L6M 3L1 NORTH SER VI C E RD BURLOAK DR (REG. RD. 21)