PinnacleHealth and Capital Blue-Cross teamed up to re-launch interactive technology aimed at helping students in the Harrisburg School District improve their health. It's part of the "Eat Smart, Play Smart" program.
The health education kiosks, developed by St. Andrew Development, were placed in Marshall Math & Science Academy and the Ben Franklin Elementary School back in 2012 as part of a collaborative partnership between Capital Blue-Cross, PinnacleHealth System, Giant Food Stores and the School District to get students more active about health education.
The relaunched technology now includes updated material on bullying, health and nutritional information-- also specifically focusing on obesity.
"It's important nowadays because we have a lot of obesity across our area," PinnacleHealth "Mission Effectiveness" Vice President Barbara Terry said, " One in three children are either overweight or obese and it's really helpful and very important they learn more about their nutrition. We're trying to catch them early and we're trying to help them live healthy and well while they're young so they can grow up to be healthy adults."
As part of the program, students earned their Passport to Nutrition® as they explored new educational features of the kiosk, participated in an exercise activity and tasted samples from each food group.