So long pizza parties. In Poland, schools did away with food-based rewards this year.

For Washburn Elementary School in Auburn, it was so long recess. Fifth- and sixth-graders take “movement breaks” instead.

At Auburn Middle School, it’s open arms to a new vending machine devoted to bottled water.

Let’s Go Androscoggin has passed its two-year goal of signing 50 schools, day cares, after school programs and health care sites into the get healthy and get moving 5-2-1-0 program.

Just over a year into the effort and it’s already at 60, said coordinator Van Beckman.

Part of a statewide campaign and locally affiliated with Healthy Androscoggin, it kicked off in August 2011.

Let’s Go Androscoggin started with survey that showed, not surprisingly, a number of kids not eating as well or exercising as much as they could be, Beckman said. “There are always restrictions to how much folks can do: the availability of healthy food, opportunities for physical activity, issues with transportation.”

There were perceptions that juice is healthy (“it’s maybe healthier than soda, but it’s not as healthy as water”) and that in downtown Lewiston the drinking water wasn’t safe (it is), Beckman said.

“We thought that probably was something we should focus on,” he said.

Sites that sign on get program materials, a visit, help with plans to change behaviors and follow-up. In the case of a day care, Beckman said, change might be offering healthier choices at snack and during celebrations, limiting juice or switching to water and skim milk, and limiting screen time.

“It can be a bit of a hard sell,” he said. “There are a lot of great ways to get kids more active and get them eating healthier.”

One early estimate was that the program was reaching 20,000 kids in Androscoggin County.

The long-term goal is to decrease the obesity rate by 4 percent, Beckman said.

Around the county, Martel Elementary School in Lewiston bought snowshoes. The Carrie Ricker School in Litchfield added an equipment room for kids. At Washburn, “a lot of kids like it, they prefer the movement breaks,” he said.

In other schools, there’s been some resistance to giving up classroom ice cream and pizza parties, but, Beckman said, “Kids prefer non-food rewards. It lasts a lot longer than a slice of pizza.”

Superintendent Mike Wilhelm in RSU 16 said his district gave up food rewards when it adopted a new wellness policy last spring.

“I think teachers are aware of it but old habits die hard,” he said.

Nov. 30 is the end of Let’s Go Androscoggin enrollment for childcare and schools for this next year. Beckman will be leaving the program shortly thereafter. His position has been funded by the AmeriCorps VISTA program. Another volunteer, Jana Thompson, will take his spot.

Beckman, from Massachusetts, has served three years with VISTA, the first two years in Wyoming. He’s enrolled in the University of Southern Maine’s Muskie School to study public health.

“It’s definitely been a life-changing experience,” Beckman said. “It’s been great connecting with the community through this program and working with all these great site partners that we’ve made. They say a healthy start lasts a lifetime — that’s kind of what we’re trying to do.”

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