Munch and Move milestone for Uranquinty Preschool

Uranquinty Preschool has been congratulated for their achievement in being the first early childhood service in Wagga Wagga to achieve all Munch & Move practices, with the support of the Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD) Health Promotion Service.

Munch & Move is a NSW Health initiative, which began in 2008. Early childhood services run the programme and the aims of the initiative are to:

• increase children’s physical activity levels,
• teach them the Fundamental Movement Skills,
• encourage and educate on healthy eating habits, and
• reduce recreational screen time.

Uranquinty Preschool has been running Munch & Move in their service since the programme began, and Natalie McDermott, Health Promotion Officer with MLHD congratulated the Preschool, Louise Grigg, and other educators on this achievement.

“Educating children on healthy lifestyle habits helps children to be the healthy adults of the future,” Ms McDermott said, highlighting the importance of children forming healthy habits as they learn about “sometimes and everyday foods and how to eat healthy.”

These lifestyle habits also include fundamental movement skills which help children become confident participants in activity and sport, which Ms McDermott said would make them more likely to be active as adults.

The Munch & Move programme has several practices each service can achieve. These practices help embed the programme throughout the service. This includes areas such as:

• information provided to parents on healthy eating,
• providing physical activity and teaching of Fundamental Movement Skills in the service, and
• policies that include particular criteria, such as educators role modelling healthy lifestyle habits.

More information about the Munch and Move program can be found here. For information on Uranquinty Preschool, please visit their website, here.