From Brains to Bones, Speedway to Healthy Gives Children Food for Thought

A student learns good toothbrushing skills during a recent trip through the Speedway to Healthy exhibit with his class.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY — Pebble Byrd, a second grade teacher at Troy Elementary School in Montgomery County, noticed a change in her students’ cafeteria eating habits after they visited the Speedway to Healthy exhibit in April.

“They would try different foods that they hadn’t tried before,” Byrd said. “Those that had never gotten salads before would try the salad. It helped them make better choices.”

The Speedway to Healthy Program, led by N.C. A&T Cooperative Extension, features a mobile, 1,200-square-foot exhibit with 11 “pit stops,” each representing a part of the human body. Since its post-COVID re-introduction, the Speedway program has raced around the state, bringing interactive health lessons to more than 5,980 children through schools from fall 2024 to 2026.

“Introducing healthy habits early in a child’s life can improve health in later years, reducing the need for medical care,” said Misty Blue-Terry, Ph.D., assistant extension administrator for youth, families and communities.

Children in kindergarten through fifth grade are introduced to the five food groups before entering the exhibit through the brain pit stop. They then travel through the mouth, stomach, small intestine, heart, lungs, kidneys, bones, muscles and skin. Volunteers in each room talk about how nutrition and lifestyle choices, like eating candy, exercising or smoking, affect the organs. Interactive displays like flossing and brushing giant teeth or listening to a recorded heartbeat that demonstrates the heart at rest and after exercise — add to the fun.

Funded through the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, 3,386 students in eight counties throughout North Carolina visited the exhibit in the 2025-26 school year alone.

In North Carolina, nearly one in three children ages 6–17 is overweight or obese, according to data from the State of Childhood Obesity report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Vegetable consumption among the state’s high school students has also declined, with the percentage reporting eating vegetables at least once per day falling from 61.3% in 2013 to 51.6% in 2023, according to a Centers for Disease Control report.

Volunteering at the exhibit brings the community closer, noted Byrd, who is a previous volunteer herself. “It’s fun to see them interact with kids, especially since some of them don’t interact with kids daily. It was neat to see them excited.”

The program also provides classroom lessons on nutrition and its effect on the body.  Working with the Montgomery County 4-H agent, teachers there extended the student learning with educational wraparound activities, including food groups bingo, movement stations and interactive dialogue about healthy habits and careers.

Byrd observed that her students retained information they learned at the Speedway to Healthy exhibit. “When we got to the human body unit in class, they had more questions for us. They weren’t just blank because it was a new unit. They had already been prepped a little bit,” she said.

Byrd said the Extension agents’ involvement with school activities is a great asset for the community.

“They’re great to come into our school and be a part of things,” Byrd said.