Good-bye candy bars, hello apples

PRINCETON — The Bureau County Metro Center has started offering healthier snacks in its vending machines.

At this week's meeting of the Princeton Park Board, recreation coordinator Ryan Luecke gave a report on the classes he attended at the recent Illinois Association of Park Districts conference, including a class on childhood obesity. According to the statistics given at the meeting, one in three children in Illinois is overweight. The focus of the class was to give steps which can be taken by park districts to help children attain healthier weights and lifestyles.

When he returned from the conference, Luecke said he contacted the vending machine supplier for the Metro Center and asked the supplier to replace some of the snack items in the Metro Center's vending machines with healthier choices, like baked potato chips, granola bars, nutri-grain bars and animal crackers. The healthier choices are marked with a heart sticker on front of that selection. There are patrons who are selecting the healthier choices, he said.

Looking ahead, the Metro Center will also offer healthier snacks at some of its programs, Luecke said. For instance, apples will be offered at the Parents Night Out events, and fruit will be also added, as budget allows, to this year's Day Camp snack selections. Healthy snacks are just one step toward a healthier weight, he added.

The goal for the Metro Center programs is to make physical fitness fun for children of all fitness and skill levels. Programs are not designed just for the children who are already fit and healthy, but rather are designed so children of all levels of fitness can participate and enjoy themselves, creating healthier lifestyles, he said.

In other business at Monday's park board meeting, the park board decided to ask its patrons how the park district is doing its job.

The park board agreed to develop a customer satisfaction survey which will be included in the billing for Metro Center members. In addition, the board will develop questions pertaining to the parks within the district.

Elaine Russell, executive director for the park district, presented possible survey questions as developed by staff members for considerations, including questions on program selections and the professionalism and courtesy of staff.