FROM THE ROAD:FOOD BINGO

The staff of Sierra Senior Center try different ways to get seniors to improve their nutrition and health. A fun way to do that is through Food Bingo. Instead of B/I/N/G/O the card headings are Grains/Vegetables/Fruits/Dairy/Protein. The spaces are filled with examples of healthy foods and serving sizes in the category. As an item was called at random players covered the area they had with a piece of pasta. A problem was the noise level was so high it was difficult for a hearing challenged person to understand the caller. Because of this there were frequent cries of "What was that again". I came close to winning a couple of times. Once I only needed "1/2 cup brown rice". Another time I was short just "1/4 cup sunflower seeds". If I'd been lucky I could have won a kitchen timer in the shape of an eggplant or a tofu cookbook. I guess everyone was a winner though because all left with a bag full of healthy vegetables and fruit. But I noticed that many also hurried, nutrition aside, to pickup day-old pastries from Starbucks that had been brought in during bingo.