Hopewell, VA (August 31, 2022) – With Hopewell City Public Schools (HCPS) returning students to classrooms in late July, the division has been busy planning for a successful school year for its students. This includes division wellness and health staff for the division, who after meeting with Y Street students on behalf of the Rev Your Bev campaign, recently updated the division’s School Wellness Policy. The updated policy now ensures that all students will not only have access to water during the school day but before and after school as well. This change will provide students involved in extracurricular activities the chance to practice healthy hydration behaviors as they stay active in clubs, sports, or other opportunities. The edit was developed in part due to the efforts of the Rev Your Bev campaign, a statewide initiative of the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth (VFHY) that is supported by its youth-led program Y Street.
Research has consistently proven that water is the healthiest beverage choice as it acts as fuel for your body. Since 2013, Rev Your Bev and Y Street have devoted and sustained efforts to spread healthy hydration messages to help individuals make drinking water a habit and improve Virginians’ overall health. The inclusion of Rev Your Bev’s policies throughout Hopewell’s schools marks a significant victory for the campaign and the Y Street members who led the effort.
With the new water access policies in place, HCPS now shifts its focus to implementation. The Rev Your Bev campaign will continue to work closely with HCPS to ensure that the updated Wellness Policy is implemented efficiently and effectively. The campaign will also assist the division in communicating the policy to the school community.
About the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth (VFHY)
Established in 1999 by the Virginia General Assembly, the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth empowers Virginia’s youth to make healthy choices by reducing and preventing youth tobacco and nicotine use, substance use, and childhood obesity. VFHY takes a comprehensive approach to prevention work that includes reaching about 50,000 children each year through classroom-based prevention programs in public schools, after-school programs, community centers, day cares and prevention programs across the state. VFHY’s award-winning marketing campaigns deliver prevention messaging to more than 500,000 children annually. In addition, VFHY’s research program provides scientific insight on methods to effectively reduce tobacco use. Since 2002, VFHY has funded 40 large research projects at universities throughout Virginia. For more information, visit www.vfhy.org.
