Taking Giant Steps to Healthy Success: Promiseland Child Care

When Vida Benjamin came to Promiseland Child Care center on the Far Eastside of Indianapolis, she’d been recently laid off and was interested in volunteering because of her passion for helping children. She never expected that one inquiry would lead to such big changes for Promiseland. Once she started volunteering, the staff soon noticed how clearly gifted Vida was with children. They then asked if she might be interested in joining Promiseland on staff, and today she’s been its director for over four years. Promiseland is a Paths to QUALITY level 3 licensed and registered child care ministry, housed in Calvary Temple "The Caring Place” church. Promiseland serves 65 children, ages 6 weeks through 5 years, and has a special program for older children during school breaks. A couple of years ago, Vida applied for Promiseland to be part of a cohort of child care providers to go through a training program for teachers focused on children’s nutrition and physical activity called Taking Steps to Healthy Success. Jump IN for Healthy Kids partners with Early Learning Indiana to administer the program to child care providers – licensed centers, ministries and home child cares. Taking Steps to Healthy Success trains teachers on the topics of nutrition, healthy beverages, physical activity, screen time, breast feeding, family engagement and staff wellness. To date, Jump IN has helped raise nearly $600,000 to provide the training to 170 child care providers, impacting more than 8,000 children.  The training’s goal is to embed best practices on nutrition and physical activities into the center’s day-to-day operations, bringing long-term, permanent health benefits to children and staff. Research shows that children establish their food and exercise habits by age five, so reaching them early is essential.As part of Jump IN’s participation in the Healthiest Cities and Counties Challenge, Jump IN connected Promiseland with Purdue Extension Community Wellness Coordinator, Emma Craynor, to enhance the work that Taking Steps to Healthy Success had started. Emma proposed the idea of creating a garden at the center. Vida visited other child care centers to see how they’d created gardens and met with a gardener from Purdue Extension for help. Promiseland doesn’t have a huge yard, and they wanted to keep the grassy area for the children’s play, so they decided to build gardens in giant tractor tires. Fortunately, a Promiseland staff member has an uncle who owns a tire shop who donated the tires. Vida had fertilizer and soil delivered, and they got the garden going. Last summer was its second harvest, and the best one yet. They raised eggplant, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, peppers, herbs, sweet potatoes and strawberries. “It was hard to get the strawberries washed off before the kids would put them in their mouths!” Vida said. The gardens teach the children about gardening, different types of food and how to prepare it, but it also has another benefit: “This summer, our harvest is actually going to offset our food budget!” Vida is adding flower boxes this year, enclosed with cinder blocks (also donated, this time by a parent at the center). Vida’s participation with Taking Steps to Healthy Success started this project going. “We got so much information – really good materials to send home with the families. We all increased our water intake and even the staff started to lose some weight,” she says. The garden is still dormant this early in the spring, but it will come to life in the next couple of months and nourish the children and staff of Promiseland. This article is part of Jump INside, a blog series featuring stories from Jump IN for Healthy Kids, a United Way of Central Indiana partner that focuses on reducing and preventing childhood obesity in Central Indiana. See all of the stories here.