UPDATE: Check out the photo gallery here.
Georgia Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle visited Morningside Elementary School to launch his Healthy Kids Challenge and to applaud the school for achieving a national 2010 Bronze Award for its wellness efforts from the Alliance for a Healthier Generation. The statewide effort, in collaboration with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, encourages children to adopt healthy habits early in life by improving access to healthier foods; increasing physical activity opportunities before, during and after school; enhancing nutrition education; and establishing school employee wellness programs.
“It’s an elite status to receive this national recognition,” said Jessica Donze Black, National Schools Director for the Alliance for a Healthier Generation. “Morningside Elementary serves as a model to schools across Georgia by demonstrating their commitment to a healthier lifestyle through all over their wonderful hands-on wellness programs for students, parents, faculty and staff, and partnerships throughout the community.”
The Healthy Schools Program at Morningside Elementary includes a school garden, gardening classes, Wellness and Walking Wednesdays, Fresh Fruit Fridays, fitness training for teachers, an after-school yoga program, food tasting with local chefs, student wellness ambassadors, and several additional wellness initiatives. Currently more than 200 schools across Georgia are participating in the Alliance for a Healthier Generation’s Healthy Schools Program. Another APS school, Burgess-Peterson Academy, earned a 2010 Bronze Award from the Alliance.
The event drew media coverage from several of the local TV news stations.