Ingalls Sponsors ‘Fit Kid Initiative’ to Promote Health

These days, many employers are promoting healthy lifestyles among their employees to increase productivity at work, but Ingalls Shipbuilding is taking it a step further by encouraging the next generation of workers to starting living healthy now.

Monday, children at Kreole Elementary School in Moss Point exercised as part of the Fit Kid Initiative, sponsored by Ingalls Shipbuilding. Kaliyah Richardson, a student at Kreole Elementary, says, “It was fun. It can help your body stay healthy.”

After their workout, the children were given a coloring book, explaining the benefits of staying active and eating right. The Fit Kid Initiative is an expansion of the shipyard’s current wellness program. Joni Goodman, Manager of the Fit Kid Initiative, says, “Our first plan was to the shipyard. Then we branched out to the family and this year, we branched out to the community. This is our community, so we said, ‘How can we give back to the community?’”

Over the next two weeks, Ingalls will visit five elementary schools in Moss Point and Pascagoula. Ingalls knows many of these students will become shipyard workers, so the company wants to promote healthy lifestyles today so those kids will be fit for work in the future. Goodman also says, “A healthy employee is a present employee. There is less absenteeism, they’re happier, they’re more engaged with their family.”

Mario Haynes, a physical education teacher at Kreole Elementary, says, “When you teach them early, it’s not like they grow up not knowing about it. The best learning is starting them while they’re young.”

Ingalls plans to return to the local schools at least once a year to promote healthy living and the company also plans to expand the program even further.

Goodman closes, “Our next thing is we’ll go to the drawing board and say, ‘What is our next phase?’ So we keep in touch with these kids as they continue to grow.”