Sport and recreational leagues
Healthy eating for sports leagues
By promoting healthy eating, sports leagues can:
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Help children eat well
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Promote positive physical health
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Promote positive mental health
Promoting healthy eating through sports leagues
Adopt a healthy food and beverage guidelines by having, or asking for, foods and beverages from Canada’s Food Guide to be available and promoted through:
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canteens
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team snacks
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rewards
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tournaments and celebrations
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marketing (e.g., sponsorships of sports teams or sporting events or promotional signs)
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fundraising
Food and beverage guidelines
Help your league create an environment that supports healthy eating by adopting healthy food and beverage guidelines for your league.
A food and beverage guideline will:
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Provide clear expectations of what foods and beverages will be available, if any, at sporting events, practices, canteens, and through fundraising.
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Show parents and the local community that the league values the health of its team members.
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Support families and individuals to make healthy food choices.
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Provide children with the same message about healthy eating that they get in school.
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Help to make the healthy choice the easier choice.
For help with adopting food and beverage guidelines for your league, please call KFL&A Public Health's living well phone line at 613-549-1232, ext. 1180.
Team snacks |
Help bring veggies, fruit, and water, to the sidelines instead of sugary snacks and drinks, by participating in our super snacks challenge! To participate, tell each parent that the team is participating in the super snacks challenge and provide each them with a copy of the snack ideas flyer. As part of the challenge, parents are asked to offer only fruit and vegetables as team snacks and to bring water for their child to hydrate. |
Rewards |
Offering food as a reward can lead children to develop an unhealthy relationship with food. Offer non-food rewards for a game well-played such as:
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Canteens |
Canteen operators can follow Health Canada’s recommendations for community spaces, including offering foods and beverages from Canada’s Food Guide, to help fuel athletes to play and recover. For snacks:
For meals:
For beverages:
Canteen operators interested in more information can speak with a registered dietitian at 613-549-1232, ext. 1180. |
Barbecues and celebrations |
Celebrations like end-of-year parties can be great team-building and social experiences. Include foods and beverages from Canada’s Food Guide to give everyone lasting energy. If offering a snack, consider:
If offering a meal, consider:
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Sponsorships and advertising |
Health Canada recommends limiting children’s exposure to food marketing. Food and beverage marketing can greatly influence children’s food preferences, purchase requests and choices. Sports-related food marketing can occur through a variety of ways, including:
To limit children’s exposure to food and beverage marketing, consider requesting local non-food businesses to act as team sponsors. If businesses cannot provide a financial contribution, they could consider offering a small discount on their product or service to league members. If food and beverage companies want to act as a sponsor, ask if they can contribute financially without your league displaying their logo (e.g., on players’ shirts). Instead, show appreciation for these contributions in an email to parents. |
Fundraising |
Many fundraisers involve selling foods that are not recommended by Canada’s Food Guide, contradicting the healthy eating messages that children learn at school and home. Use your fundraisers as an opportunity to model healthy eating through words and actions by selling whole fruit, cheese or dried pasta. You could also plan a fundraiser that does not involve food, such as:
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What does KFL&A think about food in recreation centres?
People want healthier food choices to fuel their activities and KFL&A recreation centres are rising to the challenge. KFL&A Public Health held a survey about food choices at recreation centres in 2015 and 2018. The top reason people don't buy food in recreation centres is because it is unhealthy, and the top reason they do buy it is for convenience.
Watch this video to find out more about the 2015 survey:
Meet the Super Snackables
Recreation centres across KFL&A are making changes to add healthier options to canteens and vending machines. Look for the Super Snackables at KFL&A recreation centres to help find healthier food and drinks. Healthier choices include fruit, veggie sticks, water and milk!
Super Sam
snacks on veggie sticks after practice!
Awesome Apple
stays hydrated with water!
Crunchy Carrot
munches on orange slices at half-time!
Recreation centres across KFL&A are making changes to add healthier options to canteens and vending machines. Look for the Super Snackables at KFL&A recreation centres to help find healthier food and drinks. Healthier choices include fruit, veggie sticks, water and milk!
The Super Snackables mascot, Super Sam, will be at local events promoting healthy food and drink choices.