Nutritional Programme
Grimsby Town Football in the Community offers a new programme that has been started exclusively in the Louth area. This new programme involves promoting healthy living for youngsters in Primary schools.
The programme has started at st.michaels in Louth and the course has had a great response from both the young people involved and the teachers.
Background information
(Taken from Fit for Football Marketing pack 2004) One in every three children living in the Humber area live in electoral wards that are in the top 20% most deprived in the country.
It is known that the most disadvantaged families within a population are more likely to have children who smoke at an early age, have poor diets and take lower levels of exercise. This in turn leads to an increased risk of developing cancers and heart disease in later life. Local statistics clearly demonstrate the link between deprivation and poor health where of the top 10 most deprived wards in the area, 7 out of ten are also in the top 10 highest for heart disease and 8 out of 10 in the top 10 for cancers.
A lifestyle survey of 10/11 year olds living in deprived wards in the area confirmed that smoking among both children and their parents was well above national averages. Many children, (particularly girls) took low levels of exercise and those children's diets (particularly boys) were high in fats and sugars, with significant numbers eating no fruit and/or vegetables.
This project is intended to address these inequalities in health by providing an innovative and ambitious initiative. Our programme wants to introduce key messages relating to the promotion of physical exercise, achieving a healthier diet and the prevention of smoking. At this age, young people are still very susceptible to change and Football in the Communities project intends to provide a range of fun based exercises and information to deter children from becoming involved with unhealthy living.
Programme
The nutritional programme covers a typical school term, five to six weeks. Here the children are involved with practical work involving structured physical exercise. Football in the Community also tries to provide the school with a player form the football club for a set time to come in and speak to the children about the types of food they eat, why they eat them etc. Subject to availability.
Football in the community has run a similar programme in the past, which was offered, to schools in the North East Lincolnshire area. The programme cost schools £250 per class per school half-term (i.e. five/ six programme.) The price for this programme has been based around the same costs for PPA sessions.
