Ayrshire children get fruity with Bupa
6/6/2011 7:22 AM EST
Children in Ayrshire have been keeping fit and eating healthily thanks to ‘Activ-eat’, a healthy eating initiative for primary schools from the UK’s leading health and care company, Bupa.
Pupils of Glebe Primary School in Irvine have taken part in Activ-eat on Monday 6 June. Activ-eat has been designed by Bupa to make healthy eating fun and memorable for children. Activities took place under the guidance of specially trained volunteers from Bupa’s Fullarton and Greenbank care home in Irvine, Ayrshire. Activities included tasting exotic fruits, making healthy ‘smoothie’ drinks and playing games which highlight the importance of eating five portions of fruit and vegetables a day.
Activity Coordinator for Fullarton and Greenbank, Maureen Stewart, who headed up the volunteers, said: “Childhood obesity is a growing problem in the UK with one in four children now starting primary school overweight or obese. Bupa has developed Activ-eat to help children find out about healthy eating in a fun but informative way, so they can make better decisions for their health and take this learning into adulthood. It’s really satisfying for the team to know that we’re making such an important difference and supporting local schools as they help children learn about leading a healthy lifestyle.”
As a part of Activ-eat, the children were given a pedometer each to encourage them to do more physical activity and were left with a three-week challenge to eat five fruit and vegetables a day.
Bupa's Community Affairs Consultant Siobhan Drane, says "As a health and care company, Bupa are keen to help tackle the issue of child obesity and promote nutrition and exercise through our Activ-eat programme. We are also delighted to be building new links between our care homes and local primary schools across the UK"
Bupa will also provide ongoing support to the schools with a series of information booklets throughout the year, offering parents dietary advice for their children.
In 2010, Bupa helped over 5,000 across 60 schools teaching them the importance of healthy eating and how to lead a healthy lifestyle.
For further information or to arrange a photographer please contact:
Sally Brown 0113 381 6147,
Bupa Care Services
Bupa Care Services runs 305 nursing and residential homes in the UK and cares for almost 18,500 people. Our homes are open to everyone – with over 70 percent of UK residents receiving state funding. We are the only company to offer Alzheimer’s Society-trained Dementia Champions in our UK specialist care homes and over 25% of our beds in the UK are registered for specialist dementia care. Bupa Care Services employs over 27,000 people and owns care homes in Spain, Australia, and New Zealand
For more information, visit
www.bupa.co.uk/care-homes.
Bupa Group
Bupa’s purpose is to help people lead longer, healthier, happier lives. A leading international healthcare group, we offer personal and company health insurance, run care homes for older people and hospitals, and provide workplace health services, health assessments and chronic disease management services, including health coaching, and home healthcare.
With no shareholders, we invest our profits to provide more and better healthcare. We are committed to making quality, patient-centred, affordable healthcare more accessible in the areas of wellness, chronic disease management and ageing.
Employing nearly 52,000 people, Bupa has operations around the world, principally in the UK, Australia, Spain, New Zealand and the USA, as well as Hong Kong, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, India, China and across Latin America.
For more information, visit
www.bupa.com.