Helping families fuel young bodies with fruits and fitness

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Everybody is told growing up that it’s important to eat your veggies but folks in Columbia want to tell you why.

For National Eat Your Veggies Day, the Drew Wellness Center in Columbia hosting an event geared toward getting the whole family on board with eating right.

“It’ all about just living longer, feeling better, and doing what’s right for our bodies,” said Fitness Coordinator Elizabeth Callahan.

For kids here in South Carolina, this is especially important.

According to the organization The State of Childhood Obesity – roughly 1 in 5 kids in South Carolina ages 10-17 are considered obese, but getting on the right track can be simple and fun.

“Fruit and vegetables, they’re so important to our daily lives, and it’s really important to make these things fun because you know, kids are kids. They don’t always want to eat broccoli, they don’t always want to eat green peppers,” said Carolyn True with EdVenture.

True said you can make this fun by letting kids help make healthy snacks, add veggies in to familiar foods, or go on a picnic and create something together.

“They want like mac ‘n cheese and hot dogs, which are fine, but we need things in addition to that. So making that fun is a great way to get them involved and invested in it because if they’re having fun, they’re going to like what they’re doing, and if they like what they’re doing, they’re going to keep doing it as they grow from kids all the way to adults,” she added.

But in addition to putting good food in your body, it’s important to get moving too.

“It’s always really, really important to have both good nutrition and great physical activity combined together,” said Callahan.

The Allen University Women’s Basketball program was doing that on Monday with a youth camp.

Head Coach Olivia Gaines said it was important to her to engage with the community while giving kids something to do during their summer break.

“There’s not a lot of things to do sometimes in the summer, and you know, why not give them a camp that they can afford so yea it’s cause friendly,” said Gaines, “and they get to have fun and meet new people.”