Chase County hosts UNL Healthy Fitness Day

    Debbie Kuenning is the  UNL Extension Educator and oversees 4H and youth development for Chase and Perkins Counties.
    Kuenning was one of five presenters at the UNL Healthy Fitness Day held at the new Expo building at the Chase County Fairgrounds Feb. 13. She is also coordinator for the fitness day events in Chase and Perkins County locations.
    Kuenning said the UNL Healthy Fitness Day for Southwest Nebraska is in its third year, but it’s the first time it was held in Imperial.
    She said there were 190 fifth and sixth grade students in attendance from Chase and Perkins Counties, Wauneta-Palisade and four home school students.      
    Five different stations were set up with a presenter at each one to teach the students how to focus on healthy food choices, said Kuenning.
    Each station taught a topic with a hands-on activity making food or drinks using healthier ingredients.
    Some specific areas that were focused on were portion control, adding more vegetables to a diet, how to incorporate more whole grain products and instruction on how to read and understand labels in order to make better food selections, said Kuenning.
    “The purpose of these healthy fitness day events is to improve the lives of young people in SW Nebraska through making healthier food choices,” she said.
    There were approximately 40 students per station, and each session lasted around 45 minutes, she said.
    Since Chase County made up the largest number of participants,  four of the stations were a mixture of different school students, while the fifth station was mostly Wauneta-Palisade and home school students, she added.
    Kuenning said an example of one of the hands-on activities was making whole grain and oatmeal pancakes topped with applesauce and cinnamon.

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