Since our very first class health has been set as one of our core values. In Japanese we use the word Kenko 健康. We know the vital part diet and nutrition play in martial arts, exercise and life — especially the lives of growing kids. In the past we even ran our own research on the impact sugar had on students during our summer camps and the results were pretty dramatic.
Halloween is just around the corner and we know how much kids look forward to getting dressed up and heading out trick or treating, at the same time we’re also very aware of the damage sugar can do and the stark contrast that exists in this city right now with over 60,000 people and families having accessed food banks over the past 12 months. This doesn’t sit right with us.
So here’s the challenge: after trick or treating your kids get to pick 3 things from their haul, the rest gets brought along to our kids and juniors classes on Friday 4th November. Every child that does will earn a free gi patch to show their dedication to improving their health. On top of this we will also make a donation to our friends at Can Cook, helping their Share Your Lunch campaign.
To be clear, we don’t want you to buy sweets to bring in, this isn’t about that — we’re looking to parents to help educate their children to understand, be dedicated, show self-discipline and make the choice to meet this challenge head on and give up their own sweets. We want to help make Liverpool as healthy as possible and this is one small step in the right direction.