Our Smoothie Journey

Story and video by  Elijah Corley, Arianna Shaw, Avonni Campbell, Cordé Shaw, Jaydin Lattimore, Meagan Maddox, Morgan Maddox. Edited by Arianna Shaw.

DEC. 07, 2018: When Elijah Corley was six years old, his grandmother gave him his first smoothie. It had oranges and bananas.The color was orange. He liked it. If Elijah had the choice to drink soda or a fruit smoothie, he would pick the smoothie. Sometimes his mom makes different kinds of smoothies before dinner for the family. Smoothies have fruit and vegetables unlike soda that has a lot of unhealthy things in it--like lots of sugar. Lots of sugar is bad for your teeth.

Have you ever had a smoothie? What did you put in your smoothie?

We wanted to make a healthy smoothie. Avonni Campbell saw a book called “The Juice Lady’s Guide to Juicing for Health” and it interested her because she wants to be a doctor and if people don’t like medicine then she can give them juice to help them feel healthier. She has seasonal allergies. In the Spring she gets itchy and has a stuffy nose, swollen eyes and sneezes a lot. If juicing would help her feel better, she would say YES to trying it. The book says to drink raw fruits and vegetables, because they will help her “digestive system” and they have “enzymes”. Junk food does not have enzymes, so it will make her more sick.

The FNN News Team wanted to have a smoothie, and we found a place not far from the school called Turning Natural. We read the website. Then we had lots of questions like: What is a “food desert”? What is a naturopathic doctor? What is holistic living? So, we went on a field trip to find out more about smoothies, and how fruits and vegetable can help us stay healthy. We interviewed the owner of Turning Natural in Anacostia, Washington, D.C. Her name is Jerri Evans. She answered our questions in a very nice way.

After the interview, she gave us all a FREE smoothie called the Chill Pill. It had strawberry, pineapple and mango. It was amazing! Enjoy our video above, and you may find out some answers to questions you have about being healthy. For more information: https://www.turningnatural.com/about

Arianna Shaw, Elijah Corley, Jaydin Lattimore, Avonni Campbell, Meagan Maddox, and Morgan are 4th grade scholars, and Cordé Shaw is a 5th grade scholar at Friendship Southeast Academy.