Challenge for a healthier city
Seven out of 10 children between the ages of seven and 14 years don’t eat enough fruits and vegetables, and 59 per cent of those between two and 17 years old eat less than five servings a day.
Those statistics were presented recently to Welland city council, as well as how many children have taken part in the Healthy Kids Community Challenge in Welland to date.
City recreation and culture division staff Sarah Ane, community development and volunteer co-ordinator, and Cassandra Magazzeni, arts and culture co-ordinator, brought the information forward.
The Healthy Kids Community Challenge was initiated in 2014 by Premier Kathleen Wynne as a way to stop childhood obesity in Ontario, Ane told council.
She said all Niagara municipalities are participating in the program, which came out of France through the World Health Organization. France has seen a 36 per cent drop in childhood obesity over 12 years through the program.
“We’re hoping to see the same sort of results across Ontario.”
The Healthy Kids Community Challenge, council heard, has three themes. The first theme, which ran last year, was: Run. Jump. Play. Every Day. It saw more than 3,000 children across the city take part, and also took in four community groups, all school boards, 12 businesses and 11 sports and recreation organizations.
Ane said the city’s summer day camp benefited from the program, with new equipment purchased that can be used again this year.
“We hosted water safety days, which educated not only our children, but adults as well. We’re hosting it again at all three outdoor pools. We launched Pop Up in the Park, a travelling playground program that goes to all city parks where children from zero to 10 years old can participate.”
She said Pop Up in the Park will return this summer, with the first one to be Tuesday, July 4. The free, drop-in program is loosely structured so that children may come and go as they please and may be cancelled due to inclement weather.
The second challenge theme, she said, was Water Does Wonders, which was to raise awareness about how water is essential for good health and finding ways to make it easier for kids to choose healthy drinks more often.
“It was rolled out in the schools … and nine water-filling stations and fountains were placed in Welland,” Ane said.
Magazzeni said the current third theme was Choose to Boost Veggies and Fruit. That theme, the goal of which is to get children to eat more fruits and vegetables, wraps up this September, she told council.
“We’ve partnered up with local market vendors to get people to eat well. The more parents give fruits and vegetables as snacks between meals, the more likely children are to eat them,” said Magazzeni.
She said a “produce passport” was launched at Well and Farmers’ Market — children can eat their way through the alphabet this summer. Recently, 51 samples of asparagus and 74 samples of strawberries were handed out at the market.
Mag azze ni said Smoothie Saturdays were also launched there, with 46 smoothies made the first time out. Children use blender bikes, whereby they pedal to generate enough energy for a blender, mounted in front of the handlebars, to make a smoothie. Those bikes were brought before council, where Couns. David McLeod and Mark Carl pedaled away to make smoothies for the rest of council.
Ane said while the program was supposed to wrap up once the three themes were completed, it looks like the province will extend it until at least next year and will introduce a fourth theme.