Hopewell, VA (February 24, 2023) – Hopewell City Public Schools has partnered with the Rev Your Bev campaign, an obesity prevention initiative of the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth (VFHY), to encourage its school community to drink more water during the school day and recognize the academic and health benefits of making this choice. Hopewell City Public Schools values the health and well-being of its students and staff, and for this reason, updated its wellness policy in August 2022 with comprehensive language that increases water access and promotion to align with Rev Your Bev’s best practices. The updated wellness policy recognizes water as an essential nutrient and ensures that students not only have access to water during the school day but before and after school as well.
To celebrate its updated School Wellness Policy and the continued healthy learning environment it provides its students and staff, Hopewell City Public Schools hosted a celebratory event on February 23, 2023. During the event, students, teachers, and staff participated in fun water-related activities and wrote Thank You messages, thanking Hopewell City Public Schools for their efforts to promote healthy hydration and empower their school community to make drinking water a habit. Students like Anita Hall at Hopewell High School are appreciative and shared, “I want to acknowledge and thank our school division for updating its wellness policy. It’s important to prioritize our growing youth and ensure that they have water accessibility.” The Rev Your Bev campaign also donated and distributed 1000 water bottles to support the division in implementing its policy, and provided water promotion posters and dispensers.
Hopewell City Public Schools is excited about its updated wellness policy and the extraordinary steps they are taking to increase water consumption and ensure all students have an opportunity to be healthy and successful. Division Manager of Food Services, Susan Jacobs, noted, “Water is an essential element to the body. Young people should be educated about the healthy impact that drinking water has on their mental and physical capabilities. Providing fresh water helps students give their bodies the adequate nutritional elements they need to focus and learn.”
With Hopewell City Public Schools partnering with Rev Your Bev and joining the growing list of divisions with comprehensive wellness policies that place an emphasis on water access and promotion, more Virginia students now have more access to water throughout the school day.
______________________________________________________________________________
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, daycares, 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 into 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.
