General News
24 August, 2024
New projects good bites to healthy living
NEW health programs will be rolled out in Loddon Shire schools. The Healthy Loddon Campaspe’s programs will aim to strengthen physical activity and healthy eating within the school environment. And Pyramid Hill has been slated as one of two new...
NEW health programs will be rolled out in Loddon Shire schools.
The Healthy Loddon Campaspe’s programs will aim to strengthen physical activity and healthy eating within the school environment.
And Pyramid Hill has been slated as one of two new parkrun locations in the region.
Healthy Loddon Campaspe co-ordinator Alicia O’Brien said Loddon projects would build on previous initiatives.
“Activating public spaces is about making people more aware of these areas and could potentially include installation of lighting to encourage use across more hours each day,” she said.
“We will be trying to do this in as many (Loddon) towns as possible.”
Ms O’Brien said parkrun initiatives at Pyamid Hill and Heathcote would build on the success of the world-wide fitness movement at Boort.
“Pyramid Hill has got the hill and loop at the bottom that would make it very suitable for a parkrun.”
She said: “Data from the Active Living Census told us that 62.5 per cent of Loddon Campaspe residents are overweight or obese, and only 13 per cent of adults and 14 per cent of children meet the daily vegetable consumption guidelines.
“Delivering this new round of place-based activation projects across our region will help to address these statistics by encouraging and enabling healthy eating and physical activity.
“HLC is excited to be scaling up projects already successfully delivered in other areas, as well as piloting new, innovative projects that consider the needs of our local communities.
“A number of the new food-focused projects have also been designed to align closely with the objectives of the Flourish Regional Food System Framework, contributing to the initial stages of the implementation of the framework.”
The Loddon projects are among 21 across the region - City of Greater Bendigo, Campaspe, Central Goldfields, Loddon, Macedon Ranges and Mount Alexander Shires - aimed at encouraging physical activity and healthy eating. Ms O’Brien said projects would be rolled out by next June.