March 28, 2024

Live Healthy Iowa announces new competition for Iowa schools

AMES — Is providing a healthy environment for your kids or students a top priority of yours for the new year? Live Healthy Iowa and Live Healthy Iowa Kids have unveiled a new opportunity to build a culture of wellness in your school. The K-12 Cup Challenge was designed to increase adult and student participation in the 10 Week Wellness Challenge offered by Live Healthy Iowa, a program of the Iowa Sports Foundation.

The winner of the K-12 Cup Challenge will be the school with the highest percentage of participation and completion among students in Live Healthy Iowa Kid’s 10 Week Wellness Challenge and staff in Live Healthy Iowa 10 Week Wellness Challenge. The winning school will be awarded the traveling trophy for a year. All schools who participate in this challenge will receive a banner for display in their school that states their school chooses to live healthy.

“I think it says a lot for a school to embark on this challenge,” said Lisa Weber, coordinator for Live Healthy Iowa. “It shows a strong commitment toward reversing the obesity epidemic we are experiencing in America and more specifically, Iowa. This challenge gives schools a chance to increase physical activity levels and encourage healthier nutrition habits; which is definitely the direction Iowa needs to go in order to become the healthiest state in the nation!”

During the kid’s 10 Week Wellness Challenge, Iowa’s youth will be tracking their physical activity minutes throughout the entire 10 weeks and will also track five nutrition components during two-week time periods. The nutrition components tracked are fruit servings, vegetable servings, ounces of milk, ounces of water and minutes of screen time. During the adult version of the 10 Week Wellness Challenge, adults choose whether to take part in the activity minute, weight loss or both divisions. They will track on a weekly basis their activity minutes and/or weight loss.

The challenge beings Jan. 28 and runs until April 5. Live Healthy Iowa and Live Healthy Iowa Kids offer a variety of challenges year round. To find out more information about the challenges offered, visit www.livehealthyiowa.org and www.livehealthyiowakids.org.

To register your school for the K-12 Cup Challenge, contact Live Healthy Iowa at info@livehealthyiowa.org or (888) 777-8881.

About Live Healthy Iowa Kids

Live Healthy Iowa Kids was created in 2004 as a program of the Iowa Sports Foundation and is endorsed by the Iowa Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness & Nutrition. Live Healthy Iowa Kids’ youth initiatives are free programs encouraging Iowa’s youth to be more active and learn about healthy food choices in a positive, fun way. Since they began, more than 500,000 youth have participated in Live Healthy Iowa Kids/Governor’s Challenge, Go the Distance Day and Fall Fitness Day.