In Fort McKay, prevention is the key to health. Starting when people are young, Fort McKay – the Communities ChooseWell 2017 Overall Healthy Community Champion – works hard to set healthy eating and active living habits for life.
And it’s paying off, according to Fort McKay Wellness Centre director, Julia Soucie, who says that children who are learning healthy habits are bringing those habits home to their families. One six-year-old told her mother – who was planning to go out for fast food – that she wanted to go to the grocery store instead, to get a salad. “That’s what we eat at the wellness centre,” she said.
The Fort McKay Wellness Centre, Fort McKay’s community ChooseWell leader, is at the forefront of encouraging and supporting a healthy community.
Much of what the Fort McKay Wellness Centre does is focused on instilling healthy habits early on, with a wide range of programs focused on children and youth ages six to 17.
Thanks to a ChooseWell grant in 2017, the Fort McKay Wellness Centre started an indoor community garden, which has become a focal point for healthy eating in Fort McKay, where fresh produce is at a premium. (The closest grocery store is more than 50 km to the south, in Fort McMurray). Consisting of three indoor towers, the garden was ably tended by wellness centre staff with the help of approximately 25 children and youth, who took part in every step of the growing process, from starting the seeds, to watering the plants, harvesting the fruits, vegetables and herbs, and cleaning up after the harvest was done. The food they grew – open to everyone in the community to share in – included a variety of lettuces, herbs, bok choy, tomatoes and peppers.
“The kids were willing to eat the vegetables and they loved them, because they grew them themselves,” Soucie says.
The wellness centre makes good use of the garden’s bounty. The harvest from the garden also makes it into meals prepared by young community members as part of the centre’s young chefs program, which teaches participants ages eight to 17 all about cooking healthy meals. The program includes everything from chili and stew nights, to community cook-offs, where family teams sign up in a friendly cooking competition to prepare healthy meals (incorporating traditional foods, such as bannock, berries, or moose meat). The winners are chosen by a panel of youth judges.
In addition to healthy eating, the Fort McKay Wellness Centre promotes the importance of active living, encouraging physical literacy in people of all ages by teaching the foundational skills to pursue any kind of sport. In a program offered last year for community members ages six and up, the wellness centre created a game called tenni-ball, similar to baseball, but which replaces the bat and baseball with a tennis racquet and tennis ball. “The idea was to break down the activity into simple steps, and eventually work up to playing baseball,” explains youth recreation programmer, Logan Bingley.
The wellness centre is not alone in the work that it does, partnering with a variety of organizations to deliver programs to the community and accomplish its goals. “Everybody works together, sharing resources and helping each other,” Soucie says.
For example, the wellness centre works with the Fort McKay recreation department to plan a wide range of activities, including snow tubing, snow shoeing, cross-country skiing and hiking. Winter hiking, a new program, has been embraced by the young people who take part each week. “It’s just so inspiring,” Bingley says.
The wellness centre takes pride in providing community members with opportunities to get active and stay healthy. This winter, they’re running an outdoor physical activity challenge, where people take selfies outdoors, with an awards ceremony to celebrate the most active people.