The District gave each school three modern water fountains called “hydration stations,” which provide cold filtered water.
Aunnalea Grove, program manager of Get Hype Philly for the Food Trust, said one question raised at the summit by Food Trust staff was how much water students were drinking in their schools, with the premise that encouraging more water consumption would improve students’ health.
“During that discussion, they said, ‘That’s great, but you should see the water fountains at our schools.’ That’s why students aren’t drinking the water,” Grove said.
So it was really the young people who brought that issue to our attention.” The Food Trust took the issue to its Youth Leadership Council.
That group is made up of about a dozen high school students from around the city who applied to be council members and were selected by the Food Trust.
Gym, once a teacher in the District, said water safety was already a high priority for her coming into office, but she met with students to get more information.
We don’t create enough spaces where young people can share their school experiences and, more importantly, weigh in on solutions.” Gym led the charge in city council, first to lobby the District to install three hydration stations in every school, and later to formulate two pieces of legislation passed by the council.
“Because we have a mandate for a water fountain on every floor and for every 100 students,” Gym began, “it ensures that we don’t just take fountains out of service and leave schools with less water access.” But the process to ensure compliance with this mandate is still being designed by the Department of Licenses and Inspections.
Gym was pleased that the District planned to test the drinking water for lead, but she went further and pushed legislation through council called the School Water Safety Bill.
He said YUC students have used the forum to press for a change that would allow students to bring water bottles into all schools to refill at the new hydration stations.