Florida Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

by Linda Peters
“I don’t know why we eat bad food when healthy food tastes so good.” This was the thought expressed by a guest during cooking demonstrations at the Day of Healthy Eating and Exercise held January 11 at Woodville Community Center, Tallahassee, Fla.
In order to bring about greater awareness of healthy diet and exercise benefits, Health and Temperance leaders from five Florida Conference and Southeastern Conference churches—Tallahassee First, Crawfordville, Maranatha, Fellowship, and Tallahassee Spanish—combined efforts with Bond Community Health Center, Inc., and New Leaf Market to sponsor this healthy living presentation. Cooking classes, health screenings, and homeopathic and natural healing demonstrations provided resources for healthy living and ideas for future evangelism outreach.
A representative from New Leaf Market opened the cooking class by explaining the health benefits of each ingredient as she prepared a delicious and healthy split pea soup. Samples and recipes were distributed along with New Leaf coupons.
Members from participating churches prepared favorite healthy foods with printed recipes and plenty of samples for guests. These samples included: vegan nacho cheese sauce with chips, granola, strawberry pecan cheesecake, and oat burgers.
Bond Community Health Center, Inc., sponsored a Health Screening table where many guests took advantage of free testing for blood pressure, blood sugar, BMI, and HIV. An Herbalist was available at the homeopathic/natural healing table to discuss the benefits of herbal therapy and to offer free applications of French Green Clay poultices.
At the conclusion of the cooking presentations, sponsors and guests joined together for a walk on the St. Marks Historic Railroad State Trail.
“We would like to make this an annual event,” expressed Ruth Jacobs, Health and Temperance Leader of Crawfordville Church. “Each year we plan to target a new region within the Big Bend Area to reach more people.”