Goodbye Junk Food Boys and Girls Club Does Its Part to Fight Childhood Obesity

By Margo Sullivan, The Eagle-Tribune, North Andover, Mass.

Aug. 4–DERRY — Ashley Pereira, 11, of Derry doesn’t sugar-coat the facts about those baked potato chips in the Boys and Girls Club vending machine.

“The regular ones (potato chips) taste better,” she said. But she buys the baked chips, which health experts consider the better choice — even if it’s only because she really doesn’t have any choice. The healthy snacks are the only kind sold at the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Derry.

The machine used to be jam-packed with candy, cookies and chips, according to Jen Besserer, Boys and Girls Club operations director. But last fall, she persuaded the vendors to replace the candy and junk food with energy bars, trail mix and baked potato chips, which contain about one gram of fat, compared to six or seven grams in a regular bag.

She picked items from a healthy snack list compiled by Concord-based Foundations for Healthy Communities. The nonprofit organization is battling childhood obesity and has enlisted help from the Boys and Girls Club and the Upper Room, two family service providers located in Derry.

Beth Gustafson Wheeler, community health coordinator for Foundations for Healthy Communities, said about 29 percent of Derry and Londonderry children between the ages of 5 and 13 are overweight or obese, based on a statistical sample from local pediatricians’ records. That’s better than a 2006 statewide survey, which found that about one-third of New Hampshire children are overweight or obese, she said.

Derry/Londonderry is one of three pilot programs in New Hampshire, she said, and her agency has been working with local organizations for more than a year.

Wheeler said the Boys and Girls Club and the Upper Room have been “stars” of the program. The Upper Room’s staff is serving healthier snacks and trying to eliminate soda, Wheeler said.

Overweight children might not seem like a problem at the Boys and Girls Club, where most of the children look trim and fit, but she said Art McLean, director of the Boys and Girls Club, wanted to take steps to prevent obesity and promote healthy habits.

Besserer said the decision to remove the candy from the vending machines wasn’t too popular at first, but the youngsters have adjusted to the new snacks.

“They put up a little bit of a stink at the very beginning,” Besserer said, recalling the complaints about the flavor. But the objections didn’t last long. She said the bigger hurdle came when she replaced the regular soda with diet cola, mineral water, vitamin water and plain water.

“We did at first notice a drop in revenues, but it bounced back,” she said, although it took some time for the vending machine business to recover.

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