THE ROLE OF THE SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT IN CONTRIBUTING TO CHILDREN’S WELLNESS
Volume 77, Number 1 Jan/Feb 2006
Resources Available
Many resources are available to help school districts develop local wellness policies. The Food and Nutrition Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture has a website which provides information regarding the wellness policy requirements and steps for creating, implementing, and evaluating a wellness policy, as well as examples of local wellness policies. Likewise, the School Nutrition Association provides information and tools to help schools meet the wellness policy requirements (www.schoolnutrition.org).
A publication by the CDC and USDA’s Team Nutrition called “Making It Happen! School Nutrition Success Stories” describes how 32 schools and school districts across the U.S. have improved the nutritional quality of foods and beverages apart from the school meals program (35). The success stories relate to how schools have:
• established nutrition standards for competitive foods;
• influenced food and beverage contracts;
• made more healthful foods and beverages available (e.g., Massachusetts Action for Healthy Kids a la carte food and beverage standards to promote a healthier school environment);
• adopted marketing techniques to promote healthful choices (e.g., those featuring dairy vending machines in Iowa that provided milk, cheese and yogurt);
• limited student access to competitive foods;
• used fundraising activities and rewards that support student health (35).
As stated in the “Making It Happen!” publication, a key lesson learned from the school success stories is that “students will buy and consume healthful foods and beverages – and schools can make money from selling healthful options” (35).
National Dairy Council (www.nationaldairycouncil.org) offers many programs and materials to help implement school wellness policies under the guidelines of the law. For example, several key programs can specifically meet the nutrition education and physical activity elements of a school wellness policy. The nutrition education element can be implemented using the Nutrition Expedition classroom programs for grades 2 and 4 (www.NutritionExplorations.org/educators/lessons-main.asp). The physical activity and other school-based activity element can be implemented through the “ReCharge! Energizing After-School” program which integrates physical activity and nutrition through team-based activities for children in grades 3-6. Also, programs such as the “New Look of School Milk,” “Expanding Breakfast,” and dairy vending can help meet the implementation needs of the nutrition standards element. For more information, please contact your local Dairy Council or refer to www.NutritionExplorations.org/sfs/.
Children’s low intake of milk and other dairy foods and dairy food nutrients such as calcium (8,20,36), as well as dairy’s health benefits (e.g., in bone health) are among the reasons to make dairy foods a part of school wellness policies.
Health and school professionals can move children toward more healthful diets and physically active lifestyles by getting involved in Action for Healthy Kids State Teams and school wellness.
Hundreds of schools across the nation recognize that milk can play a more prominent role in meeting nutrition goals and as such are switching to the New Look of School Milk program. This program is based on results of the School Milk Pilot Test conducted in 2002 by National Dairy Council and the School Nutrition Association (formerly American School Food Service Association) (37). The School Milk Pilot Test demonstrated that a combination of milk enhancements (i.e., offering a variety of flavors of cold milk in kid-appealing plastic re-sealable containers in various sizes in more locations including lunch lines, a la carte and vending machines) increased students’ selection of milk and their participation in the National School Lunch Program (37).
For more information about the rationale and strategies for developing a local wellness policy that includes dairy’s role in child wellness, refer to the material, “Dairy Foods and Your School Wellness Policy” (www.NutritionExplorations.org/sfs/wellnesspolicy.asp)
ACTION FOR HEALTHY KIDS: WORKING TOWARD A SOLUTION
Action for Healthy Kids (www.actionforhealthykids.org) is a nonprofit organization working to improve the health and educational performance of children nationwide through better nutrition and physical activity in schools. It is a public-private partnership of more than 50 national organizations and government agencies representing education, health, fitness, and nutrition, which support the efforts of 51 State Teams (including all states and the District of Columbia) made up of thousands of volunteers (school administrators, educators, health professionals, and others). Each of the 51 State Teams is working on an action plan to create health-promoting schools that support sound nutrition and physical activity.
Action for Healthy Kids State Teams can play an important role in helping states and schools develop, implement, monitor, and evaluate new school wellness policies. To get started in developing a school wellness policy, Action for Healthy Kids in conjunction with CDC and USDA has developed an online searchable resource database (http://www.actionforhealthykids.org/).
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