[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/news\/new-partnership-heal-alabama-focus-faulkner-universitys-wellness-week\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/news\/new-partnership-heal-alabama-focus-faulkner-universitys-wellness-week\/","headline":"New partnership with HEAL Alabama focus of Faulkner University's Wellness Week","name":"New partnership with HEAL Alabama focus of Faulkner University's Wellness Week","description":"Students help cook “HEAL-icious” meals with HEAL Alabama founder, Christy Swaid and Birmingham’s Kathy Mezrano with Kathy G.& Co., center, during Faulkner University’s Wellness Week. Wellness Week not only promoted the health of the mind, body and spirit of students…","datePublished":"2017-10-19","dateModified":"2019-09-19","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/author\/rburylo\/#Person","name":"Rebecca Burylo","url":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/author\/rburylo\/","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/37a0c97fbd1eda89e38697defcaf0573?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/37a0c97fbd1eda89e38697defcaf0573?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Faulkner University","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/Official-Horizontal-480x128.png","url":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/Official-Horizontal-480x128.png","width":480,"height":128}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/22492008_1480274888759795_6561675733815082142_n-.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/22492008_1480274888759795_6561675733815082142_n-.jpg","height":"225","width":"300"},"url":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/news\/new-partnership-heal-alabama-focus-faulkner-universitys-wellness-week\/","about":["Adult Students","Alumni","Current Students","Graduate","News","Online"],"wordCount":575,"articleBody":"Students help cook “HEAL-icious” meals with HEAL Alabama founder, Christy Swaid and Birmingham’s Kathy Mezrano with Kathy G.& Co., center, during Faulkner University’s Wellness Week.Wellness Week not only promoted the health of the mind, body and spirit of students and staff through a series of fitness classes and cooking demonstrations\u00a0at Faulkner University, it was a way to highlight a new partnership with HEAL Alabama.A nonprofit organization that emphasizes preventive health measures, healthy eating and lots of exercise, HEAL Alabama, or Healthy Eating Active Living, has teamed up with Faulkner and the department of exercise science and kinesiology. Faulkner University President Mike Williams is looking to HEAL as an opportunity for students to engage the community and curb the drastic percentage of children and adults suffering from obesity and diabetes.Alabama is one of the leading states in obesity and diabetes. According to 2016 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 16 percent of children ages 2 to 4 were found to be overweight and 15 percent were considered obese. In addition, 15.8 percent of adolescents were overweight and 17 percent were obese.\u201cHEAL has wonderful and rich goals to improve the lives of the citizens of this state and here at Faulkner University, we want to incorporate HEAL values in everything that we do to better prepare young men and women to live productive lives and go out into the community,\u201d Williams said.Walking through the cafeteria, those filling their plates at breakfast, lunch or dinner will notice small HEAL Alabama logos by certain foods that qualify as foods rich in nutrients.Several Faulkner students were wearing\u00a0bright red HEAL shirts that denote those who have begun their own HEAL groups on campus.Jonathan Hacker proudly wore his as he helped cook healthy turkey tacos for a live cooking demonstration in the cafeteria during Wellness Week.\u201cOur groups are willing to incorporate and teach healthy eating and active living,\u201d Hacker said.\u201cFor instance we bring food ideas of what is healthy. You have your meat, dairy, fruits and vegetables and each one works a different body group like your eyes, your mental health, your skin, your muscle groups and your bones. We firmly believe that needs to be taken into greater consideration in life.\u201dHe joined several other students as HEAL\u2019s founder, Christy Swaid invited Birmingham\u2019s famous caterer and chef, Kathy\u00a0Mezrano with Kathy G. & Company to tape a segment on ways to incorporate lean protein into “HEAL-icious” meals.While HEAL Alabama, founded in 2002, is currently serving approximately 100 schools and 24,000 children across the state, Faulkner University is HEAL\u2019s first school-wide collaboration with a university.\u201cFaulkner is an essential learning lab to help us refine the most powerful way of stimulating public health,\u201d Swaid said. \u201cWe are so thankful Faulkner is the first to make this commitment and help us HEAL Alabama from the bottom up and the top down.\u201dFaulkner students will act as HEAL\u2019s \u201cfoot soldiers\u201d as students in the physical health department teach and volunteer at Davis Elementary, through internships and new curriculum, said Donna Clemons, the chair of exercise science and kinesiology at Faulkner.\u201cWe would like for all of our education majors to be HEAL certified before they graduate so that way when they go out in the community and work, they can teach HEAL and help the community become healthier,\u201d Clemons. \u201cHere, we focus on the mind, body and spirit and HEAL exemplifies that.\u201d"},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/news\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"New partnership with HEAL Alabama focus of Faulkner University's Wellness Week","item":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/news\/new-partnership-heal-alabama-focus-faulkner-universitys-wellness-week\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]