A Successful Healthy Family Day at Dexter Farmers Market

From 5HF/Dexter Wellness Coalition

The Dexter Wellness Coalition with a grant from 5 Healthy Towns Foundation recently funded a new community event for pre-school child wellness, called Moving Dexter Families Toward a Healthy Path. The purpose of this event was to promote physical activity, healthy eating and increase familiarity with the Dexter Farmers Market, as well as to encourage families to connect with others in the community in healthy ways.

According to World Health Organization, the two most important means of preventing childhood obesity are physical activity and healthy food choices. Dexter Wellness Coalition promotes these activities across the life span, but recently teamed up with Bob-a-loo, an innovative program that incorporates mimicry of wild animals to positively influence childhood behavior for pre-school age children, a population often overlooked.

In September, Bob-a-loo, the Dexter Farmers Market, and the Dexter District Library hosted a fun-filled activity day for over 25 families, showcasing the resources available at the library and introducing children to the vendors at the market where they purchased fresh produce from local farms. Bob-a-loo conducted follow-up surveys to measure the success of the event from both a vendor and parent perspective. Vendors unanimously agreed that they benefited from the event and had increased interaction with families and children. A grandmother had this to say, “We really enjoyed the event! My granddaughter got a kick out of purchasing her own choices at the farmers market. We went home and showed the rest of the family the animal moves we learned that day. This was a wonderful event and I hope it becomes an annual activity!”

Look for the program to run again in May of 2022 at the Chelsea District Library.

To learn more, contact Ruth Habrecht at habrechtruth@gmail.com or visit: https://www.bob-a-loo.org/