Northern Ireland – Encouraging healthy habits for kids

The enhanced partnership means more children will benefit from Safefood’s football-based On the Ball – Healthy Know-How for Active Kids programmes and events.

The aim of the partnership is to teach the importance of healthy eating habits and being active from an early age to thousands of children and their parents/carers across Northern Ireland. As well as continuing as the Irish FA’s official safe and healthy eating partner, the extended partnership sees Safefood become an official patron of the Education and Heritage Centre at the national football stadium at Windsor Park where it will provide free nutrition workshops for visiting schools. The On the Ball programmes and events include the roll-out of a series of six-week after-school programmes across dozens of primary schools.

The Irish FA and Safefood, an all-Ireland body with a remit of promoting the importance of good food hygiene in the home and helping people make more informed choices about the food they eat, will use a mixture of animated presentations, player videos, interactive games and quizzes to encourage children to make healthier choices such as eating more fruit, vegetables and healthy snacks, and swapping sugary drinks for water or milk.

This article originally appeared in UEFA Direct 198