Saturday morning hockey, french fries and a bottle of pop are a tradition at rinks around the city, but that's about to change.
The concession stand at Delaney Arena has been added to, and the new choices will be healthy ones, says Tom Forsythe, manager of city arenas. The new menu will soon spread to all five municipally owned rinks, and includes the likes of cheese strings, white and chocolate milk and soy nuts.
"The (Thunder Bay District) Health Unit approached us last year about starting a program, of introducing healthier options at our rinks. We were interested in it and thought we'd give it a try," Forsythe said on Saturday, after being awarded an Eat Smart award for making the change away from saturated and trans fats, salt and sugar.
"We're rolling out some new products, some new options for people and we think it will go over well."
The Health Unit's provided options and it was up to Forsythe and his team to choose what to add to the menu.
"We're offering milk products now. We've changed our juice products to be 100 per cent juice. We're offering whole wheat buns for hot dogs and sausages, some pretzels and trail mix and some fruit products, things like that," he said.
Forsythe acknowledged tradition goes a long way at the rink, and doesn't expect everyone to jump on board the health train express.
"Traditionally it's been fast foods, quick get in and get out. And we'll still have those. We're not eliminating any of those, but we are offering other options. And hopefully it will work well," he said. "Based on the response this morning at Delaney, with the parents of the younger kids coming in, they are quite pleased with it. We've already started moving some product through Delaney."
Kim McGibbon, a public health dietitian at the Thunder Bay District Health Unit, said the Eat Smart program has been staged in cafeterias and other workplaces around the city, but this marks the first time it's been put in place at a municipal facility.
"We're excited to work here because a lot of our young families are coming through here and we want to start healthier eating habits at younger ages," McGibbon said.
"Families, because they are running their kids to hockey and other sporting events, they don't often have time, necessarily, to sit down to a meal together, so we want to encourage healthy options for a snacks and foods when they do get a chance to get here to the rink."
McGibbon said simply put, they want children to have the fuel they need to be on the ice and to be active and grow up well.
The Eat Smart designation requires having foods from the four different food groups, but it's not just nutritional requirements. The other side looks at safe food handling.
"We'll expand as soon as everyone's finished writing their safe food handling test around the city," she said.
Ultimately she'd like to see everyone on board.
"We'd love to see it expand everywhere, to other recreation centres and to ones that are privately owned."
