Healthier rewards and a pro-water movement for tamariki and whānau
Healthy Families Hutt Valley has been driving the ‘All Star of the Week’ initiative (formerly Player of the Day) and a pro-water movement since 2017. One of the opportunities identified was to break the link between fast food and fizzy drink vouchers for player of the day rewards.
Local councils and sports organisations that have been on this journey with Healthy Families Hutt Valley over the past decade are now taking the lead, demonstrating that water is the drink of choice and healthy rewards are normalised across the greater Wellington sports sector.
To make water the drink of choice, Healthy Families Hutt Valley set out to make water visible and accessible in the places they live, learn, work and play. The more water is visible and accessible, the more normal it becomes to choose to drink water.
The pro-water ‘Go the H20’ movement began back in 2017, with the aim to make water the easy drink of choice across Te Awakairangi. Healthy Families Hutt Valley set out to understand what would help make water normal on sidelines and in sporting clubrooms, learning that sports clubs wanted to support the wellbeing of players and whānau.
As part of the movement, Healthy Families Hutt Valley partnered with local councils and sports organisations to design an alternative player of the day certificate that replaced fast food vouchers with a pool pass. To be eligible for these certificates which offered a free pool entry, sports organisations needed to demonstrate how they would promote water-only and junk-free sidelines.
This initiative created a triple benefit:
water is promoted as the drink of choice on the sporting sidelines;
fast food was removed as the reward for the Player of the Day; and
free pool passes were provided as an additional opportunity for players and their whānau to be physically active.
In 2022, based on feedback and observations from sports clubs, the certificates evolved from ‘Player of the Day’ to ‘All Star of the Week’. This shift gave coaches the opportunity to acknowledge positive behaviour from players rather than just their ability on the field, valuing the hauora of tamariki from a holistic point of view.
Today, 78 junior sports clubs and 17 sports codes promote water-only sidelines as the norm and are getting healthier rewards with All Star of the Week pool passes. This equates to approximately 150,000 free pool entries, and less fast food vouchers in the hands of tamariki.
This initiative is now supported by five local councils across the Wellington Region, with local government and sports organisations showing that drinking water and healthy rewards is now normal in the sports sector.
“Having Player of the Day certificates presented to our tamariki priceless, the smile on their faces, sharing their achievements with family and friends, as well as going to school on Monday morning with something exciting to show and tell. Being able to go to the swimming pool is a treat for our league community with the ever increasing cost of living, the simple relief of a single child (in some instances multiple children from the same whānau ) free admission is the difference between families having quality whānau time together or not.” – participating sports club
By denormalising sugary drinks and fast food rewards where children are active and play, it makes a significant difference to their health and wellbeing.