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Health Kids Challenge phase 2: Up with water, down with sugary drinks

New water bottle filling stations part of the initiative

New water-bottle filling stations will soon be installed in areas where kids in Greater Sudbury meet and play.

The first station was already installed at Carmichael Arena, so kids using the skate park can quench their thirst after a hard day of play. The filling stations are one part of Phase 2 of the Healthy Kids Community Challenge, which was launched Friday in Greater Sudbury.

While Phase 1, launched in January, was to encourage children to run, jump and play every day, Phase 2 is designed to get kids to switch from sugary drinks to water.

Children between the ages of one and eight get 50 per cent of their daily sugar from sugary beverages, according to the Sudbury and District Health Unit. The idea behind Phase 2 is to make water their first choice for a beverage.

The theme for Phase 2 is "Water Does Wonders," said Kate Barber, project manager of the Healthy Kids Community Challenge for the City of Greater Sudbury.

“We want kids to switch from sugary drinks to water,” she said. “What we're going to do as a community is make it easier for that to happen. We're putting water-bottle filling stations at parks so kids can drink water wherever they are.”

Barber and her team will also work with schools and other child-oriented programs where kids are and help them be water friendly.

New mascots, Tap and Thirsty, will be out in the community promoting the benefits of drinking water and handing out water bottles.

There are 45 communities across Ontario participating in the Healthy Kids Community Challenge. They all receive resources from the province including funding, training and social marketing tools to help promote healthy eating, physical activity and healthy behaviours.

"Trying to get children to choose water first is one of the biggest changes that can have such a positive impact,” Barber said. “It's a change parents can understand and get behind.”

Megan Dumais, director of health promotion, Sudbury and District Health Unit, said the program is a natural fit for the health unit, one of many partners involved in it.

“By changing the norm and making supportive environments where kids can access water more readily, even when they are outside of the home, it makes water the easier choice,” she said.

For more information about the Healthy Kids Community Challenge, visit the website.


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Arron Pickard

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