This year, UC CalFresh joined the statewide day of action in promoting Rethink Your Drink Day by serving fruit infused water to middle school students. What would have been a regular lunch break, turned into a time to teach about increasing water consumption. On a given day, 6 in 10 youth (63%) and 5 in 10 adults (49%) drank a sugar-sweetened beverage (CDC, 2017). Our educators work to help reduce these numbers through nutrition education in local schools.
At Nicolet Middle School, lines were formed and students answered surveys about their sugar sweetened beverage habits. One question was “How likely are you to drink more water after what you learned?” and 46% of 168 students surveyed responded with “very likely.” UC CalFresh nutrition educators, Claudia Carlos and Yazmin Nieto, along with Reanna Liversage from Banning Unified Nutrition Services and Brandon Takahama, California Baptist University intern, gave students information about sugar sweetened beverages. They showed students the amount of sugar in various drinks, informed them about health consequences, and gave them a tasting of fruit infused water.
At Bobby Duke Middle School in Coachella Valley, UC CalFresh Nutrition Educators, Malryn Pulido and Jackie Barahona, had a similar event. Students (265) rushed to taste cucumber mint or kiwi berry blend infused water. The votes were casted with “yum” or “not today.” The winner was the cucumber water with 191 ‘yums' but the kiwi berry blend was not far behind with 176 ‘yums'. Youth were taught a lesson on rethink your drink in their class that day. Students received stickers promoting drinking more water and re-useable straws donated by the Dairy Council.
Students pledged to rethink their drink because…
“Some drinks have too much sugar and it's not healthy”
“It will be healthy and help me with sports”
“The water was really refreshing”
“The water was really good!”