Soft drinks, fruit juice and flavoured milk will be phased out of ACT primary schools within five years if the ACT Government is re-elected in October.
Chief Minister Katy Gallagher has announced a $500,000 fund to install water bottle refill stations and supply reusable bottles to government and non-government primary schools, high schools and colleges.
Schools that apply for one of the machines will have to agree to phase out the sale of sugary drinks from canteens and vending machines.
Ms Gallagher said the aim was to tackle rising obesity rates among children by phasing out the sale of all sugary drinks in Canberra primary schools by 2017.
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“We already know that in the last four years we’ve seen increases in childhood obesity rates and in children who are overweight,” she said.
“One of the causes of that, without any doubt, is access to sugary drinks and consumption of sugary drinks.
“We need to make water the drink of choice again for children.”
This is a brillant idea!!! I must agree- Kids these days are eating too much sugary foods! Not only is it bad for their health- it’s bad for others as well as they are then harder to control. We need to teach kids to reach for water 1st when they are thirsty- this is what I was brought up to do and and have been the same way since. Good on ACT government for even thinking of this. Now the rest of the states should consider this as well.
We had this at my highschool, we had water fountains where you could fill up your water bottle and we at the canteen we only had diet soft drink available.
I think for primary schools, this is a great idea, they should only have healthy options available in their canteens!