GROUP HOPES TO SWEETEN FOOD CHOICES IN NUTRITION FESTIVAL

If parents buy less candy and junk food and more fruits and vegetables for their children, then the organizers of the Supermarket Festival will have accomplished their goal.

"What you eat affects your health and how you feel," said Fran Haupt, coordinator for the Healthy Children Nutrition Education Initiative in Cape Girardeau, which is sponsoring the supermarket fair.

Children will eat fruit, but parents often think they are too expensive and don't buy them at the market, Haupt said. Instead they will spend money on a candy bar or other junk food that doesn't have any vitamins.

"It's just wasted energy," she said. Children and adults alike are more apt to eat more junk food than they really should in a serving, too.

"You're less likely to eat too many graham crackers than you are with chips," Haupt said. "You're better off with crackers than with chips."

The Community Caring Council and nutrition and dietetics students at Southeast Missouri State University are helping to organize the second Supermarket Festival Saturday to help educate parents, particularly those with lower incomes, about healthy eating.

The event will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Save-A-Lot in Cape Girardeau.

Booths will be set up to offer advice on how to make better choices for food, how to cook foods that are lower in fat and how to eat sensibly.

Haupt said she would like people to choose foods that are more healthful.

Many times people buy foods lower in fat but those products tend to have more calories than are needed, she said.

Gift certificates and food samples will be available, as well as games for children.

For information, contact Haupt at 986-7381.

WANT TO GO?

WHAT: Supermarket festival

WHEN: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday

WHERE:Save-A-Lot in Cape Girardeau