Montana's Big Sky State Game's three-month-long interactive team competition to encourage healthy eating physical activity called Shape Up Montana begins Feb. 1 and goes until May 1. Bigfork's schools are already ahead of the game thanks to changes in cafeteria food, yoga classes, health fairs, and improved nutrition education brought on by the Wellness Committee. A healthy vending machine will be coming soon in addition to other changes to improve Bigfork's health.

According to Shape Up Montana, adult obesity in the state has increased over the last twenty years much like the rest of the country. Montana's adult obesity rate was less than 10 percent in 1990 and increased to 14.7 percent in 1999 and was at 23.5 percent in 2010.

Because today's students are tomorrow's adults, Bigfork schools have had a Wellness Committee working on addressing the issue since 2006 under state law. So far the committee has removed pop and candy from the middle school, added mixed greens to lunches, arranged for high school health classes to work with elementary students and are currently addressing a grant to improve nutrition education and promote physical activity in the schools.

“This year we're looking at getting healthy vending machines because right now we don't have many healthy choices (for snacks in school),” Wellness Committee Chairperson Sue McGregor said. “It's a misconception that healthy vending tastes bad, but there are so many choices now; previously, the choices were pretty yucky tasting.”

Students will sample various healthy snacks such as yogurt and granola to determine what they would buy and what should be stocked in the healthy vending machine. For more information, visit healthyvending.com.

Dana Stoddard's yoga lessons and juicing with fruit and vegetables unit has gone over well so far and McGregor hopes to see both programs return. The middle school has also been hosting health fairs each semester and plans to continue.

Parents of students can look for emails from the schools regarding upcoming changes and opportunities to get involved.

For more information about Shape Up Montana, visit shapeupmontana.org.