South Heartland District Health Department

Nebraska Kids Fitness and Nutrition Day to be Held October 7th in Hastings

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Fourth-grade students from Adams, Clay, Nuckolls, and Webster Counties will learn about health and wellness at the 21st Annual Nebraska Kids Fitness & Nutrition Day (NKFND), set for Tuesday, October 7th, at the YMCA of Hastings. The day's activities take place from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the 16th Street Hastings YMCA. Approximately 300 students will attend this year’s event.

Brooke Wolfe, local NKFND coordinator for the South Heartland District Health Department, said that “fourth-graders are a good age to work with because they are beginning to develop lifelong habits that will inevitably affect their behavior in the future. Helping children learn to eat right and be active every day means they have a better shot at being successful both in school and in life.”

When the students arrive, they will be divided into two groups, with one group on the basketball courts for physical activities and the second group congregating on the walking track to participate in nutrition education activities. The students work in their respective stations and then trade places after a nutritious sack lunch.

The fourteen Physical Activity stations include Big Ball Chase, Jump Rope games, and Stability Ball exercises. Nutrition stations will teach the youth about energy balance, understanding food labels, how to make healthy snacks, MyPlate, and the importance of food safety and hand-washing.

Wolfe said that the overall purpose of the event is to demonstrate to both students and educators how physical activity and nutrition work together to maintain health. “We know that obesity is not only a national epidemic but also an enormous problem right here in central Nebraska. Our goal is to give the students the tools to enable them to make healthy decisions for themselves - which will hopefully lead to a healthier generation.”

Participating schools include St. Michaels, Adams Central, Sandy Creek, Superior, Red Cloud, Silver Lake, Watson, Lawrence Nelson, Kenesaw and Blue Hill.

Local sponsors and planners of the event are the South Heartland District Health Department, Hastings Family YMCA, and UNL/Adams County Extension Nutrition Education Program. Hastings College is providing 21 Education major students to lead the physical activity stations. The NKFND program was developed, in part, by the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

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