Students at the Lauderhill Community YMCA, located inside Lauderhill Middle School, met today to present a healthy eating plan to members of the Broward Country School Board.
The students are part of Live Well Lauderhill, a community project that raises awareness about healthy eating.
The students met with Broward School Board members Laurie Rich-Levinson and Ben Williams and voiced their goal to increase and promote healthy food options in YMCA after-school programs, stock healthier food and beverage choices, and create a policy for all Y events and programs to provide healthful foods.
The Lauderhill Y does not currently have a healthy food policy for
events and vending and the community itself has little in the way of
stores where families can purchase healthy foods.
A Yellow Pages search
of grocery stores in Lauderhill yielded Winn-Dixie on State Road 7 and a
host of smaller convenience-store-type outlets. According to the YMCA,
the majority of food purchases by Lauderhill families are made from
local convenience stores, where the purchases primarily run to
processed, prepackaged foods.
The YMCA hopes that by adopting a
formal healthy eating program for after-school programs, meetings, and
events, families will be positively impacted and the Y will serve as a
model for school policies and, ultimately, healthier eating at home. The Lauderhill YMCA is located inside Lauderhill Middle School at 1901 NW 49th Ave.
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