Province Expands Fruits and Veggies Program to Richmond, say MLAs

by Linda Reid, MLA, Richmond East/Olga Ilich, MLA, Richmond Centre/John Yap, MLA, Richmond-Steveston
(Richmond, BC Canada)

Students in two Richmond schools will soon be sampling healthier snack options, thanks to the Province's expansion of the School Fruit and Vegetable Snack Program, announced Richmond's BC Liberal MLAs today.

"Daily servings of fruits and vegetables are an important part of a healthy diet for our children. This initiative, combined with our government's plan to require at least 30 minutes of physical activity for students each day and remove junk food from schools, will have a real impact on child health in our province," said Linda Reid, MLA for Richmond East.

"Expanding the School Fruit and Vegetable Snack Program into these schools will help ensure that students are encouraged to eat right and be healthy. The habits they develop in their youth will help them grow into healthy adults who make healthy choices," said Ilich, MLA for Richmond Centre.

"There's a clear link between good health and good performance at school. By encouraging children to make healthy food choices, we'll help them to reach their full academic potential as well," said Yap, MLA for Richmond-Steveston.

Two Richmond schools - William Bridge Elementary and Tomsett Elementary - will begin participating in the School Fruit and Vegetable Snack Program, starting this semester.

Following the initial expansion in January of this year, ActNow BC, with funding from the ministries of Agriculture and Lands, Education, and Health, has committed to providing the fruit and vegetable program to an additional 113 schools, for a total of 164 schools, this fall. The goal for the program is to offer every public school in B.C. the opportunity to participate in the program by 2010. The School Fruit and Vegetable Snack Program is part of the Province's ActNow BC initiative to make B.C. the healthiest jurisdiction ever to host an Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

Announced in March 2005 by Premier Gordon Campbell, the School Fruit and Vegetable Snack Program is delivered by the B.C. Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation in partnership with the Overwaitea Food Group through Save-On-Foods, Cooper's Foods, Overwaitea Foods and PriceSmart Foods stores. Under the program, fruit and veggie snacks will be in classrooms of participating schools on a bi-weekly basis for about 18 weeks of each school year. The program's success has been supported and augmented by parent advisory councils, administrators, teachers and parents.

The program sources fresh, BC-grown fruits and vegetables from B.C. growers throughout the province and will deliver to nearly 57,000 students with the expansion.

Today's announcement will help fulfil election and throne speech commitments to ensure all public schools have an opportunity to participate in the School Fruit and Vegetable Snack Program by 2010. The School Fruit and Vegetable Snack Program supports government's goal to lead North America in healthy living and physical fitness. ActNow BC is a partnership-based cross-ministry health and wellness initiative that promotes healthy living choices to improve the quality of life for all British Columbians.