On the Same Page: Color your health with February’s Fruit and Veggies Challenge

Throughout February, Reedsburg Public Library, in partnership with the Sauk County WIC program,is sponsoring a Color Your Health: Fruits and Veggies Challenge as part of its Fit Families initiative, which began in October 2021.

Families are invited to pick up the Color Your Health flyers at the library to fill in each day’s progress, or go to Reedsburg Public Library homepage at www.reedsburglibrary.org and find the Beanstack link to track your results online. The goal is to “check off” online or “color in” on paper a fruit and veggie for every day that you eat a full serving of a fruit or vegetable. If you are already doing that, set your goal to two full servings of a fruit or vegetable each day. Four to six cups total is the daily recommended intake. Visit myplate.gov for more information. Don’t worry about starting late! You may still log your progress for previous days.

Not only servings, but “colors” of fruits and vegetables play into the goals of this challenge. On the Beanstack site, you are asked to record the color of the fruit or vegetable you ate, or highlight “fruit” or “vegetable” with the appropriate color on the paper form. Add orange or yellow vegetables to your diet to provide nutrients that benefit the nervous system, prevent heart disease and promote eye health. The old adage about carrots helping you see better is true! At the end of the month, if your chart looks like a “rainbow,” you have completed the “bonus” component of the challenge. Finishers will receive a “milestone” button for February’s section of the overall Fit Families challenge! All results must be turned in by Friday, March 4.

The Color Your Health: Fruits & Veggies Challenge will be followed by the even more challenging Screen Free Week in May and a Healthy Lunch Challenge in the fall. The goal of the Fit Families program, which so far has also included a Walking Challenge and a Water Challenge,  is to promote overall health in the community by introducing a new aspect of healthy living every other month for the whole family to work on.

Reedsburg Public Library’s Beanstack platform is a great way to track local results. In between the Fit Families monthly challenges, the library is offering its own Beanstack reading challenges to keep the mind healthy as well!

The Fit Families program is sponsored by the statewide WIC (Women Infants and Children) initiative. WIC is a special supplemental nutrition program for pregnant women, infants, women who are breastfeeding, postpartum women and children younger than 5. The Sauk County WIC Fit Families challenge has been extended to all residents of Sauk County.

For questions about the Color Your Health: Fruit and Veggies Challenge, call the library at 608-768-READ or email info@reedsburglibrary.org.