Burnley stars promote healthy eating programme

Schoolchildren in Burnley received lessons in healthy eating from two of their heroes recently when Jeff Hendrick and Scott Arfield visited local schools.

The Clarets midfielders visited St. Joseph's Catholic Primary School in Barnoldswick and Barrowford Primary School to chat with the youngsters, offer advice on nutrition and hand out certificates. 

The children asked the players on keeping healthy and why eating well is such an important part of being a professional footballer.

"When we get them at this age, it's really good because they understand it," said St. Joseph's teacher Catherine Henderson. "They are understanding why they are eating, why they are drinking so much, why they are being active. I feel that would carry on throughout their lives."

Burnley FC in the Community's Healthy Eating programme is a six-week project, combining classroom and PE lessons for students, who learn about the levels of sugar in fizzy drinks, healthy lunch boxes, key food groups while they also kept a log of their weekly water intake.

The initiative, which aims to educate children on the importance of making healthy choices and participation in physical activity, began in 2015 and has engaged with 1,176 children from 42 schools.

In the last Academic year, 849 pupils from 32 schools were involved.

Find out more: Burnley's Schools Healthy Eating programme