Senator Rath grants Univera Healthcare $10,000 to fund transportation for Wegmans student food tours
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For immediate release: April 19, 2007
Contact: Virginia McAuliffe - (716) 857-6273
Buffalo, NY - This morning, fourth grade students from Roosevelt Elementary School noticed some unfamiliar faces on their school bus as they rode to Wegmans to take the Eat Well. Live Well. 4th Grade Tour-New York State Senator Mary Lou Rath and Mary Lee Campbell Wisley, Regional President of Univera Healthcare.
Senator Rath has awarded $10,000 to Univera Healthcare's Fun 2B Fit program to subsidize bus transportation to area Wegmans stores so local students can participate in Eat Well. Live Well. field trip.
Senator Rath is the prime sponsor of several Senate measures aimed at curbing the negative health effects of obesity and is currently working with the State Department of Health to develop a strategic plan for preventing obesity in children and adults.
Univera Healthcare's Fun 2B Fit childhood obesity initiative is a school-based initiative encouraging children and their families to make healthier food choices by trying new foods, increasing their level of physical activity, shopping for healthy foods and preparing meals together. The Wegmans Eat Well. Live Well. 4th Grade Tours are being offered to area schools as part of the Fun 2B Fit program.
Fun 2B Fit also engages second and third graders at select schools in the Western New York area. Second graders participate in a series of taste testings where students sample one healthy Fun 2B Fit recipe in their school cafeteria each week for 12 weeks, and receive lime green kid-sized chef aprons and large, laminated recipe cards for each food they try. For third grade, Fun 2B Fit offers a physical activity lesson entitled Why it's Fun 2B Fit, in which students and teachers follow a 30-minute workout led by a Fun 2B Fit fitness trainer, that incorporates easy, fun dance moves and stretches. Parents of all third graders participating in Why it's Fun 2B Fit receive a backpack full of tools to help them make healthy choices for their families. Each tool kit contains a magnetic grocery pad for the refrigerator with pre-printed healthy items on each tear-off page, a magnet with everyday tips on how parents can keep their kids healthy, a Healthy Family Pledge to be signed and displayed in the home, and the tool kit itself is a backpack that can be reused as a gym bag, or to take on family outings.
The Fun 2B Fit program was created by Univera Healthcare to combat childhood obesity and is based on recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the New York State Learning Standards. According to the American Obesity Association, of six to 11 year olds, 30% are classified as overweight and 15% are considered obese.
Nearly 8,000 Western New York students at 35 schools have participated in Univera Healthcare's Fun 2B Fit program. Fun 2B Fit is being offered to select schools in the Western New York area after a successful pilot program was conducted in 2005.
Univera Healthcare's Fun 2B Fit has been honored with two awards for Publication Excellence (APEX Awards), two international MarCom Creative Awards, a Civic Empowerment Award from the Greater Buffalo All-America City committee, an Award of Distinction from the Video Communicator Awards, a World Wide Web Health Award, and the American Academy of Pediatrics newsletter CQ, a national publication, acclaimed Univera Healthcare for this innovative program.
Fun 2B Fit program partners include Wegmans Food Markets, Inc., a 69-store supermarket chain with stores in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia and Maryland; Body Shaping By Sandy, which offers group fitness classes, personal training, weight-loss programs, and corporate fitness in the Western New York area; the Healthy Community Alliance, a non-profit corporation created to facilitate partnerships among citizens, facilities, and community groups to address health and human service needs which are viewed as priority areas in portions of Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie and Wyoming counties in New York state; and Lifetime Health Medical Group, which provides primary healthcare for more than 100,000 patients in Buffalo and Rochester and in Buffalo, operates seven sites and is the area's largest primary care medical group.
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