Students used Art class to create posters for promotion during the ‘Shake the Sugar’ Challenge
The Shake the Sugar Drink Winter Wellness Challenge took place from November 21st to December 21st, 2014. This challenge was a month long commitment to give up all kinds of sugary drinks and raise awareness in students, staff, administrators and parents about the potential health issues related to consuming sugary drinks. As adults, we understand the disproportionate numbers of Aboriginal people with diabetes, heart disease and obesity. We also understand that our societal culture normalizes the amount of sugar consumed on a day to day basis. Youth are less likely to make the connection between a regular diet of sugary foods and long term health implications.
During the ‘Shake the Sugar’ Challenge, educating students about over-consumption of sugar was a huge factor in its success
The owners of this challenge are four schools within the Victoria area: Victoria High School; Central Middle School; Victoria Native Friendship Centre; and Reynolds High School. This initially came out of conversations amongst the key campaign coordinators. From there, the campaign coordinators worked with student leaders from their respective schools.
There were a range of events that took place with the challenge including sugar-free drink sampling stations, information displays about sugar and sugar-free snacks and lunches. While initial interest was low, as the challenge progressed interest started to grow. By the end of the challenge when final prizes were to be drawn there were literally hundreds of names in the draw. Over 300 students ranging from 11 to 18 years old joined the challenge as well as the many that followed the challenge on Facebook.
"The beginning of the Challenge was a bit slow as we realized the strong reluctance of many students, and even some staff, to consider the idea of reducing or eliminating sugar from their diets. Many students stated it would be a very difficult thing to do even for a day. However, the variety of resources used in the educational campaign was helpful to reach a variety of people in a variety of ways, and we noticed that people started to talk more and more about how much sugar was in their diets".
Students from Victoria High School have new filtered water coolers as a result of the challenge
This campaign led to a lot of changes within the school community. Sugary drinks were removed from vending machines, filtered water coolers and water filtration systems were installed in the school. A lot of changes in attitude took place and this has students, parents and teachers excited,
"My son took the Challenge very seriously. He even convinced his hockey team to switch to water instead of sugary sports drinks and when we went out for pizza, he asked for water instead of pop!"
This challenge has ultimately helped these schools to have those 'hard to have' conversations about pop and sugary drinks in their school and broader communities.
