Childcare center recognized for nutrition initiatives | News
WILLIAMSON — Living Water Child Care & Learning Center in Williamson was recently recognized for its work to encourage a healthy lifestyle to the children in their care.
The center was one of 10 across the state to receive the 2021 WV Champion NAP SACC Center Award from KEYS 4 HealthyKids.
Director Jackie Branch promotes wellness at the center by working with a nutritionist to create the menu, offering a variety of outdoor play equipment and ensuring that the kids have at least 120 minutes of active play each day.
“We participate with the mobile market, like a mobile farmer’s market,” Branch said. “We do gardening on our playground. Those things provide fresh vegetables for our families at no cost to them. The meal boxes that they receive with our mobile markets, those are done every other week through the summer and in those produce boxes that all they children get to take home, there are recipe cards with suggested healthy meals that they can make from those produce boxes.”
The award, which was developed by KEYS 4 HealthyKids and funded by the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, uses an evidence-based program called Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care.
Each winning center received a monetary award of $3,000, a promotional video spotlighting their work and a plaque to display.
Branch said receiving the award was an honor, and that her staff works to ensure the children and families they serve are taken care of.
“It was an honor to be one of the 10 selected from the state,” Branch said. “Our staff has worked diligently throughout the course of the pandemic to make sure that all of our families’ needs are met emotionally, physically and, of course, with proper nutrition. We’ve been able to have that consistency with our children and their families, and we look forward to continuing to serve our community.”
Currently, 16.6% of children in West Virginia ages 2-4 who participate in WIC have obesity, and studies show that excess weight in childhood is predictive of adult obesity. Obesity increases the risk of developing both diabetes and hypertension.
KEYS 4 HealthyKids partners with the Early Care and Education sector to intervene early and help make the healthy choice the easy choice. Through programs like KEY 2 a Healthy Start and Farm 2 ECE, KEYS empowers child care centers to develop policies and translate them into effective strategies for wellness and obesity prevention.
