A new program in New Westminster aims to take a bite out of childhood obesity – and help kids become healthier, happier and fitter.
The city’s parks, culture and recreation department is spreading the word about a new 10-week wellness program that supports children and their families on a journey to adopt a healthy lifestyle. MEND – short for Mind, Exercise, Nutrition, Do It! – hopes to encourage lasting lifestyle changes by improving children’s physical activity levels, nutrition and self-esteem.
“It’s an amazing opportunity, not only for the children but for the entire family,” said program manager Lisa Mandel. “It’s an opportunity, not only for families to come together and be active, but for families to get stronger. It’s building bonds between families.”
Originating in the United Kingdom, the program has been offered in Canada for the past couple of years.
“We are really excited about it,” Mandel said. “The program has been proven to work in a lot of other sites.”
The New Westminster program marks the first time it’s been offered for five- to seven-year-olds in British Columbia. Elsewhere, MEND is also offered to kids aged seven to 13.
Ten sessions will be held on Sunday afternoon, with the free program aiming to start at the end of January.
According to Mandel, MEND was developed in the United Kingdom to address the rising rate of obesity in children. The criteria to register for the New Westminster program is that the child must be between five and seven years of age, the children should be at risk of or above a healthy weight, families must be able to commit to attending for the full 10 weeks and at least one parent or caregiver must attend all sessions with the child.
“We are not just focusing on kids who are overweight or are struggling with weight,” Mandel said, noting families with a history of weight issues are also able to participate. “We are more than willing to look at families with those characteristics. We don’t want to turn anybody away.”
People can find various BMI calculators online and type in their child’s height, weight, age and gender to determine if they’re in the 85th percentile or above, and are exceeding a healthy weight.
The sessions include “power time,” a snack time that seeks to expose families to new and exciting new healthy foods. Using smell, taste and touch – and a bit of positive peer pressure – kids (and their parents) may try foods they would normally shun.
“We do a healthy living activity session with everyone – parents, kids and siblings,” Mandel said. “It isn’t just sitting and listening. They participate.”
Reading labels and incorporating activity into everyday life are among the topics to be tackled. Parents and kids split up for the last hour of the program.
“The kids get to go off to the gym with our activity leader,” she said. “We call it active play. We do games with them.”
The Superdudes will be part of the active play component of the program and serve as role models to the children involved in MEND.
“They're a group of six animated characters that help our MEND leaders to connect with the kids. They're meant to act as role models for the kids throughout the entire program,” Mandel said. “Every session includes what we like to call a ‘moving story’ that features the Superdudes.”
In the "moving story" leaders read out the story and get the kids involved by jumping, zooming and wiggling in order to act out what is going on, Mandel said.
“In the story, the Superdudes encounter some sort of problem on the journey to MEND World, and the kids help by problem solving ways to help the Superdudes out,” she said.
The program is open to residents of New Westminster and beyond, as the only other Lower Mainland site offering the program for five to seven year olds is Strathcona.
For more information or to register for MEND, call Lisa Mandel at 604-777-5100. More information about the program can be found at www.childhoodobesityfoundation.ca/MEND.
