By Maria Stepanyan, Founder and CEO
It was the last afternoon of camp. The posters were coming down, the day’s fruit had been handed out, and I was packing up our materials when a group of students came hurrying toward me.
“Ms. Maria, Ms. Maria! Is there any way we can make the camp longer?”
Before I could answer, another voice jumped in: “Or can you at least promise to come again next year?”
For a second, I didn’t know what to say. Those two questions told me more than any report could. Our curriculum, and the way we were teaching it, was working.
Kids asking for more nutrition class
Let’s be honest: not many kids jump for joy at the words “nutrition lesson.” So when middle schoolers ask you to stretch a nutrition camp longer, or come back and do it all again, you know something special happened.
That feeling is exactly what the Healthy Heroes Challenge is built for: growing students’ nutrition knowledge in a way they genuinely enjoy, so they keep coming back and what they learn sticks long after the program ends.
The numbers back it up. On the first day of camp, students averaged 62% on our nutrition pre-test. By the last day, their post-test average had jumped to 80%.
But the test scores were only half the story. The excitement, the engagement, and that eagerness to keep learning reassured me that this knowledge wasn’t going to fade once camp ended.
A week at School No. 111
From July 27 to July 31, One Thriving World partnered with the School Feeding and Child Welfare Agency of Armenia to bring the Healthy Heroes Challenge to School No. 111 in Yerevan. Twenty-five middle school students from the school joined us for a week-long summer camp, our first global health initiative brought to life.
Every day mixed real nutrition science with hands-on, creative, and sometimes messy activities. Here are a few of our favorites.
The ice cream that wasn’t
Did you know the “ice cream” in many advertisements is actually mashed potatoes? Real ice cream melts too fast under hot studio lights, so food stylists often swap in something that holds its shape.
To learn firsthand that we shouldn’t believe everything we see in ads, our students made their own fake ice cream out of mashed potatoes. Now, every time they see a glossy ad for an unhealthy food, they’ll remember that what’s on screen might actually be something totally different.
A healthier twist on grandma’s recipe
What do you do when your grandma is making a beloved traditional dish and you know it isn’t the healthiest? Our students found out by taking a traditional Armenian dish of their choice and working out smart substitutions to make it healthier, without losing what makes it special.
Now they know exactly which swaps to suggest the next time guests are coming over and grandma is in the kitchen.
Selling the veggies nobody wants
Don’t like your vegetables? What better way to warm up to them than trying to convince someone else to eat them?
Our students created advertisements for commonly disliked but very healthy vegetables. To make a convincing pitch, they had to dig into each vegetable’s benefits, and by the time their ads were finished, a few of them were starting to sound convinced themselves.
Putting it into practice
We didn’t just talk about healthy eating; we lived it. Every day, students got fresh fruit as their snack.
Then came a happy surprise: two of our students celebrated birthdays during camp week. Instead of cake, we put the birthday candles in fruit. Best of all, that was our students’ own idea. They were already putting what they’d learned to work, and they had a blast doing it.
A fruitful week, pun intended
We couldn’t have asked for a more fruitful Healthy Heroes Challenge. Our students left with more nutrition knowledge, new skills they can bring home to their families, and, maybe most importantly, a genuine excitement about living healthy.
A huge thank you to the School Feeding and Child Welfare Agency of Armenia, to School No. 111 and its director, to our program leaders, and above all to our 25 Healthy Heroes. You made this week unforgettable.
And to the students who asked if we’d come back next year: we’re already looking forward to it.
Want to help bring the Healthy Heroes Challenge to more students? Learn more about the program or support our work.
