Healthy Kids Today Has An All-New Look
Just in time for the beginning of the new school year, the Winter Park Health Foundation (WPHF) has launched a newly revamped and more interactive Healthy Kids Today website—www.healthykidstoday.org. It’s called Healthy Kids Today Magazine and it features information on all of the WPHF-supported school-based health and wellness programs (part of the Coordinated Youth Initiative-CYI), as well as health news, healthy recipes, and more information about healthy school activities than ever before.
It will serve as a clearinghouse for the latest healthy activities and opportunities available to students and families in Winter Park Consortium schools served by CYI programs. The programs include CHILL, the School Nursing Initiative, School- Based Health Centers and Healthy School Teams.
The website, and the Healthy Kids Today newsletters produced by the Winter Park Health Foundation (WPHF) for students and their families twice a year, are designed to support and build on all of the other CYI programs.
Feature stories currently highlighted on Healthy Kids Today Magazine at www.healthykidstoday.org of the Healthy Central Florida initiative, a partnership between WPHF and Florida Hospital.
Regular features include healthy recipes—including one supplied by Kern Halls, Manager for OCPS Food and Nutrition Services, who had the chance to serve dinner to First Lady Michelle Obama when she visited Orlando earlier this year. He served Jerk Chicken and a variety of healthy sides. The Jerk Chicken recipe can be found in the recipe archives, along with other recipes. Recipes for other portions of the First Lady’s dinner will be featured in an upcoming edition of the Healthy Kids Today newsletter as well as on the website this fall.
Healthy School Team Leaders, principals, staff and parents also are being encouraged to become part of the Healthy Kids Today network by submitting school activity reports, healthy news and story ideas. Principals already have been submitting their thoughts on the importance of a healthy lifestyle for posting on the website, and CYI staff members have been sending in biographical information so parents can get to know them better. Parents and students have been invited to participate in videos—demonstrating healthy activities or sharing healthy tips—which will be filmed by WPHF staff and posted on the website.
Parents had a chance to sign up for the videos during meet-the-teacher open houses held the week before school started. WPHF staff members attended 10 open houses to promote the revamped website and all of the CYI services to parents.
The new website also is designed to interface with social media including Facebook so the community is continually engaged and informed on ways to promote health at home and in school.
