SUCCESS STORY: 2016
Local Nurse Provides
Healthy School Snack
Workshops
Registered nurse Derek Dimas learned
kids need to eat healthier to help
Derek Dimas teaches kids in his local city of Corpus Christi about how to make art work
decrease the high rates of obesity in
with fruits and vegetables in his “Fun with Fruit” program. (Photo Source: Caller
his hometown of Corpus Christi,
Times/Gabe Hernandez)
Texas (50.7 % Latino). By starting a
program to help kids see fruits and
vegetables as delicious works of art, students in schools across the city are having fun learning how to create
and enjoy healthier snacks.
EMERGENCE
Awareness: In spring 2014, Derek Dimas, a nursing student at the time, was certain he wanted to make a huge
impact on the overall health of his community of Corpus Christi in Nueces County.
While taking an epidemiology class, Dimas reviewed data and learned that the city had record-high levels of
obesity, hypertension, and heart disease.
About 42% of local Latinos and blacks are overweight or obese, he said.
“For some reason, that statistic just stuck,” Dimas said.
He knew he wanted to find a local solution.
“I knew [high obesity rates] didn’t have to be that way,” he said.
Learn/Frame Issue: Dimas thought about himself being a Latino and wondered why fellow Latinos and other
minorities deal with such high rates of obesity.
He asked himself: “What can I do to make a change?”
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Dimas began researching healthy foods and started brainstorming of possible solutions to combat the
statistics of adult and children minorities dealing with unhealthy weights.
Majority-black or majority-Latino schools are significantly less likely to offer fresh fruit (61.3%) than
predominantly white schools (87.8%), and schools with low socioeconomic status are far less likely (38.5%) to
offer salads regularly than schools with middle (47.4%) or high (59.4%) socioeconomic status , according to a
recent study from the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
Improving nutrition education in schools seemed like a good place to start.
DEVELOPMENT
Education/Mobilization: A month after discovering the dramatic statistics of obesity, Dimas started educating
parents and students on what foods and drinks to avoid, and the importance of obesity-related disease like
type-2 diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and more.
Dimas talked often with Latino parents and kids in his community, using various connections that he had
through friends and family, his campus’ organizations, including one of his own professors who had
connections with the Corpus Christi Independent School District (CCISD).
Through onsite campus events like health fairs and fiestas, Dimas was able to use his own taste test booths to
spend time connecting with Latino families one-on-one and learn more about what parents and kids needed
to make the healthy choice the easy choice when it comes to food.
“Instead of having the tamales and tortillas, I would give away freshly sliced fruit and vegetables,” Dimas said.
Debate: But he realized parents weren’t truly heeding his preventive health messages . How could he get
parents and kids to not glaze over his information when it came to learning about nutrition?
“I started brainstorming about a way to make it more interactive, and fun, and make children want to eat the
various fruits and vegetables,” Dimas said.
ENACTMENT
Activation: In May 2014, Dimas started experiments at his booth at his university’s health fairs and various
community events.
He let students create whatever they imagined from his fruits and vegetable offerings at the booth, essentially
letting the kids “play” with the food.
Dimas started becoming an artist with fruit himself, crafting fruit creations like a spider made of oranges with
two raisin eyes. He found that the kids he was working with really appreciated his fruit art ideas and wanted to
develop more designs.
Dimas decided to start a “Fun with Fruit” art program to teach kids nutrition in school settings.
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“I finally realized at this conclusion that if you associate fun with an activity then children, more or less, will be
wanting to repeat that activity,” Dimas said.
Dimas made an appointment with Richard Torres, CCISD’s Program Specialist for health and physical
education, tell him about his fruit art program idea.
They came to an agreement where Dimas could present Fun with Fruit at the annual CCISD coaches meeting in
August 2015.
Dimas then reached out to nursing professors at area colleges, including Kathleen Crane, who teaches a
Community Health Nursing course at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi.
Dimas asked Crane if her students could volunteer with Fun with Fruit to help the nursing students achieve
required clinical volunteer hours and also open
the door for nursing students to give nutritional
advice directly to kids. Crane agreed.
“When you’re working with kids, you need a lot
of help,” Crane said. “They [nursing students]
can help build community and can help teach
the kids about nutrition and how it can be fun.”
Dimas also created a brochure for parent to
explain childhood obesity and related issues,
how to read a nutritional label, information on
disease prevention, and meal planning.
Planning to spread his Fun with Fruit message
online through social media outlets, he
dedicated a few hours per week to post
information about his program, templates for fruit
art and advice on nutrition.
Dimas also provided online kabob fruit or
vegetable templates and art ideas along with the
nutritional benefits of the specific fruit or
vegetable being used in the art project.
Derek Dimas, owner and creator of 'Fun with Fruit' with Food
Bank of Corpus Christi Nutrition Educator, Cassandra Guerra
and Del Mar Colleges Nursing Students teamed up to teach
students from Luther Jones Elementary school about the
importance of nutrition in their daily diet. (Photo source:
Food Bank of Corpus Christi Facebook page.)
Frame policy: Fun with Fruit would be an interactive four-week program at each school to empower students
to create their unique works of art with provided sliced fruits and vegetables.
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During the program, students would be taught the
nutritional value and benefits of eating fruits and
vegetables. Then students could eat their works of
art.
The ultimate goal of the program is to have children
view fruits and vegetables as fun and more appetizing
thus, increasing their daily intake of fruits and
vegetables.
“I felt moved because these kids may not outlive their
parents because of obesity,” Dimas said in a recent
Citali Mendez looks at her creation after she stacked fruits
article. “I’ve heard of three-year-olds with diabetes
and vegetables to eat during the Fun with Fruit program
and young people with heart disease.”
Friday, Oct. 9, 2015, at Zavala Elementary School in Corpus
Christi. (Photo Source: Caller Times/Gabe Hernandez)
Change: After presenting to the coaches in August
2015, 33 elementary and middle schools signed up to incorporate the Fun with Fruit program into part of their
physical education (P.E.) classes.
“The key is to make [eating fruits and vegetables] something that they want to do not something that they
have to do,” Dimas said.
IMPLEMENTATION
Implementation: Dimas and his volunteer group visit three different schools twice a week for four weeks and
then move onto new schools to help kids create fruit and veggie kabobs during P.E.
P.E. Coaches allow Dimas and his nursing student volunteers’ a 45-minute class to teach and make the food art
with students. The classes run from 80 to 120
students, where students pair up in groups with
nurses and volunteers to co-create posters on
healthy choices and design their fruit and vegetable
kabobs.
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi nursing
students were some of the first volunteers to help
Dimas through the program, creating colorful
posters that helped students discover a variety of
fruits for each color of the rainbow (and other
health topics like reducing sugary drinks and getting
more active).
The template for the basic kabob design includes
celery, cucumbers, strawberries, and grapes. Dimas
explained he has found success in pairing the
Healthier Schools
Students from Zavala Elementary School in Corpus Christi eat
fruit and vegetable kabobs during the Fun with Fruit program,
October 2015. (Photo Source: Caller Times/Gabe Hernandez)
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sweetness of the fruit with the vegetables for kids to enjoy the first taste tests. He also invites parents to
attend the classes hoping to inspire healthy eating for the whole family.
“What’s surprising is you have kids asking for more celery or more cucumber,” Dimas said.
Dimas also allows time for questions. He asks if students have ever tried certain vegetables, and observes the
difference in those trying new vegetables for the first time.
“I usually have 10 or 11 students who have never tried celery,” Dimas said.
Equity: Since starting to develop the program in May 2014, Dimas has directly taught over 5,000 students
within CCISD about nutrition and helped numerous families incorporate more fruits and vegetables into their
diets.
“[Fun with Fruit] gets little kids really excited about fruits and vegetables,” Crane said. “It’s a good way to get
across to them that there’re more things
to eat than fast food, and tell their
parents about it.”
Using his own funds to provide the fruits,
vegetables, and paper plates to the
schools he visits, Dimas explains to
families that fresh fruits and vegetables
only cost him around $20, helping them
to see that eating healthy is not as costly
as many people believe.
Dimas said many Westside CCISD
students, who are predominantly Latino,
have improved their diets, have been
introduced to new fresh produce, and
have improved access to healthy foods.
Students from Zavala Elementary School in Corpus Christi eat fruit and
vegetable kabobs during the Fun with Fruit program, October 2015.
(Photo Source: Caller Times/Gabe Hernandez)
“I have several students, who, for the
first time ever, are consuming celery and cucumbers,” Dimas said. “Not only do these children try the various
fruits and vegetables, but they ask for seconds.”
Sustainability: Dimas’ art program has continued into its second year at CCISD, fueling kids’ brains with fruits,
vegetables, and nutrition education. He plans to extend the program into as many CCISD schools as time and
volunteer staffing permits.
Crane explained that Fun with Fruit is a great program and she is willing to have her nursing students
continually volunteer in the future.
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Other schools in the area, including Flour Bluff Elementary School, have also reached out to Dimas, interested
in starting Fun with Fruit at their school. Dimas explained he is happy to share what he has learned with other
schools, showing to them what has worked for him and how to run the program successfully.
Dimas is confident he’s making a big health impact in his community.
“As I was collecting my material at the conclusion of my program, a parent approached me and said the
following: ‘I want to let you know that yesterday, as I was grocery shopping with my child, we passed up the
fresh produce section of the grocery store and for the first time ever my child asked me to buy him
cucumbers,’” said Dimas. “This, to me, is the essence of what my program has done for others.”
This success story was produced by Salud America! with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The stories are intended for educational and informative purposes. References to specific policymakers,
individuals, schools, policies, or companies have been included solely to advance these purposes and do not
constitute an endorsement, sponsorship, or recommendation. Stories are based on and told by real community
members and are the opinions and views of the individuals whose stories are told. Organization and activities
described were not supported by Salud America! or the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and do not
necessarily represent the views of Salud America! or the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Salud America! The RWJF Research Network to Prevent Obesity Among Latino Children is a national program
of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The program aims to educate researchers, decision-makers,
community leaders, and the public in contributing toward healthier Latino communities and seeking
environmental and policy solutions to the epidemic of Latino childhood obesity. The network is directed by
the Institute for Health Promotion Research at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
For more information, visit http://www.salud-america.org.
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