On July 1, acting Surgeon General Dr. Steven Galson presented Keene State College’s Early Sprouts program with a “Healthy Youth for a Healthy Future” Champion Award at the Rose Byrne Child Development Center in Manchester, N.H.

Dr. Galson’s was promoting the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ “Healthy Youth for a Healthy Future” initiative, which focuses on recognizing and showcasing communities that are addressing childhood overweight and obesity prevention by helping kids stay active, encouraging healthy eating habits, and promoting healthy choices.

The Early Sprouts program, led by Health Science Professor Dr. Karrie Kalich, is a 24-week nutrition and gardening curriculum for preschoolers that originated at Keene State in 2006. Kalich worked with KSC students and faculty from the Nutrition and Education departments to implement a program that engages preschool children and their families in a unique, healthy lifestyle-learning program centered on a working vegetable garden.

The Rose Byrne Child Development Center is one of six Head Start centers in southern New Hampshire that adopted the Early Sprouts program.

Learn more about, Keene State College’s Early Sprouts Program or the Surgeon General’s Initiative, and visit Keene State’s Early Sprouts gardens just beside the CDC in Elliot Center.

Photo by Ann Gagnon: Dr. Karrie Kalich and Surgeon General Dr. Steven Galson

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