Initiative hopes to make healthy food fun at Somerset Elementary

• PHOTO: Troupe

The leader of the Radio Disney troupe tells students about good food choices as part of the YumPower School Challenge presentation at the Somerset Elementary School.

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The Somerset Elementary School was the first school in Wisconsin selected to be of the YumPower School Challenge.

The elementary school is partnering with HealthPartners and the Lakeview Foundation in the project. The project with kicked off last Wednesday with a high-energy interactive assembly led by Radio Disney.

The program is an effort to inspire kids to make more healthy dietary choices and to get them to eat five servings of fruits and vegetables each day.

The assembly used a fun, energetic approach, led by five Radio Disney personalities, to get the kids active and interested. After getting the kids’ attention, they used several fun activities to spark the kids’ interest in eating the right foods.

Each student was given a goody bag that includes trackers of their fruit and vegetable consumption for four weeks. Students will be able to fill sheets with stickers, based on their fruit and vegetable consumption. Completed sheets will be submitted at the elementary school office for a drawing for prizes.

The Yumpower School Challenge is the leading edge of a new Lakeview Foundation Children’s Health Initiative called PowerUP. The initiative’s goal is to bring together children, parents, schools and the community to make it easy for kids to fuel up, be active and have fun.

Marna Canterbury, Health and Wellness Director for the Lakeview Foundation, said “Our goal is to make it easy, rewarding and fun for kids to eat well and be active, so we can improve our children’s long-term health prospects.”

Watch for more information on PowerUP. The program is getting ready to launch a campaign this summer throughout the St. Croix Valley.

Tags: somerset schools, communities, health, education, somerset, food