Fun Day to focus on nutrition, fitness

Event at Emmett O'Brien to feature farm market

ANSONIA - The Valley Initiative to Advance Health & Learning in Schools (VITAHLS) will host a Family Fun Day from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct. 21 at Emmett O’Brien Technical High School, 141 Prindle Ave.
A fun run at 8 a.m. will precede the free event. 
Family Fun Day will have a festival feel with many booths featuring games, nutritional and fitness activities, free healthy snacks and a farmer’s market.
The Family Fun Day is also designed to launch the public phase of the VITAHLS program informing parents, community leaders and the public about the goals and components of the program.

Obesity prevention
VITAHLS is a community and school-based childhood and adolescent obesity prevention program that aims to reduce the prevalence of obesity and promote health, well-being and the academic readiness of students in the Valley school districts.

The initiative was launched last school year by Griffin Hospital and the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center in partnership with the Ansonia, Derby, Oxford, Seymour and Shelton school districts and Emmett O’Brien Technical High School.

This school year, the initiative will introduce Activity Bursts in the Classroom (ABC) for Fitness™ and Nutrition Detectives™ to students throughout the Valley and the Family Fun Festival will allow parents to try these two fun and informative programs as well.
ABC for Fitness helps increases the amount of physical activity our students get throughout the school day, and Nutrition Detectives teaches children the five clues for selecting more nutritious food.

In a related effort to help students eat healthier, Derby schools will offer the NuVal Nutritional Food Scoring System this school year.
Starting this fall, foods sold at the schools will be labeled with a “NuVal Score,” a number between 1 and 100 that determines the nutritional value of the food. The higher the NuVal Score, the better the overall nutrition.
NuVal Scores will be found on a la carte items (such as milk, fruit, and side items such as rice and beans) and on food in all vending machines. NuVal offers students quick and simple information to help them make the right selection.


The above information is taken from a press release from Griffin Hospital.