Fun and fitness take center stage at SoBeWFF event

March is National Nutrition Month, and FIU students got an early start communicating the importance of healthy habits to South Florida kids at Fun and Fit as a Family Feb. 23-24.

Part of the Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival (SoBeWFF), the annual event was staged by more than 450 students at Jungle Island. They joined celebrity chefs and staff members from the Biscayne Bay Campus Recreation Center to discuss the basics of healthy eating and staying active.

Kids explored the food garden and experimented with all the major food groups in the Whole Foods Market Food Labs hosted by Food Network chefs like Anne Burrell. They heard from Robert Irvine how to make a cauliflower taste delicious during a culinary demonstration on healthy cooking at the Kellogg’s Kidz Kitchen. And they ran through the Rec Center’s activity stations that included hurdles and sprinting.

This family-friendly event is one of 50 SoBeWFF events, which more than 1,300 students help plan and execute every year. Since its start, the festival has raised more than $15 million for FIU’s Chaplin School of Hospitality and Tourism Management and the Southern Wine & Spirits Beverage Management Center.