School boards must establish wellness policies by next July

The district’s food services director, Peggy Lee, described the nutrition components of the wellness policy at the Healthy Schools Summit 2005 in Washington, D.C., in September. The summit was organized by Action for Healthy Kids, a public-private partnership of more than 50 national organizations, including NSBA.

The Chesapeake school district banned fried foods in elementary schools and removed all fryers from elementary cafeterias. More varieties of salads have been added, including a mandarin chicken salad and a salad with baked popcorn shrimp. Pizza served in school is now made with a whole wheat crust and low-fat mozzarella. Snacks include baked potato chips, low-fat ice cream, and reduced-sugar snacks.

The wellness mandate, included in the Child Nutrition Act of 2004, requires all school districts participating in federal school meal programs to develop a local school wellness policy by the start of the 2006-07 school year.

The policy must include:

• goals for nutrition education, physical activity, and other school-based activities to promote student wellness;

• nutrition guidelines for all foods available on the school campus;

• guidelines for school meals that comply with or exceed those set by the secretary of agriculture; and

• an implementation, monitoring, and evaluation plan.

Development of the wellness policy must be a communitywide effort and must include parents, students, and representatives of the school food authority, school board, school administrators, and the public.

Within these parameters, schools boards can shape their policies to meet local needs.

The wellness policy approved in September by the Des Moines, Iowa, school board says all foods available on campus must comply with current U.S. Department of Agriculture dietary guidelines.

A food item sold individually can have no more than 35 percent of its calories from fat (excluding nuts, seeds, and peanut butter). In addition, no more than 10 percent of an item’s calories can come from saturated and trans fat combined and no more than 35 percent of its weight from total sugars.

The only beverages allowed are water, juice drinks that contain at least 30 percent fruit juice and no added caloric sweeteners, low-fat or fat free milk or flavored milk, and electrolyte replacement drinks and drinks with caffeine that meet certain requirements.

Under the Des Moines policy, schools cannot use non-nutritious foods as rewards for academic performance or good behavior and cannot withhold food or beverages as a punishment.

The wellness mandate was passed, at least in part, as a response to the childhood obesity epidemic. According to Action for Healthy Kids, 9 million American children are overweight, triple the number in 1980. Childhood obesity among children ages 2 to 5 has increased 35 percent in the past 10 years.

Childhood weight problems can lead to such health problems as elevated blood pressure and cholesterol, joint problems, Type II diabetes, gallbladder disease, asthma, depression, and anxiety.

Children who are overweight at age 12 face a 75 percent chance of becoming overweight adults.

Childhood obesity is even higher among African-American, Hispanic, and Native-American populations, and dealing with the problem in lower-income communities presents special challenges.

George R. Flores, senior program officer with the California Endowment, says people who grew up in poverty have a different reaction to hunger. “When they don’t know what tomorrow will bring, they tend to eat more.” When people move to the United States from poorer nations, they tend to be overwhelmed by the quantity of food available here and “don’t realize that things being marketed are not healthy.”

In inner-city neighborhoods, there are likely to be lots of fast food restaurants, small groceries with lots of junk food instead of fresh produce, and limited opportunities for outdoor play, Flores says. Because of the high crime rate, many parents tell their children to stay in the house.

Flores quoted from an Institute of Medicine report that concluded, “It is unreasonable to think people will change when so many forces in the social, cultural, and physical environment conspire against such change.”

Yet school districts in poor communities are working to overcome obstacles to good health.

One example is the Rio Grande City Consolidated Independent School District in Texas. According to Superintendent Roel Gonzalez, the district is in a county where more than half the adult residents are diabetic and 85 percent are overweight or obese. And because the temperature is often above 100 degrees in the summer, children tend to spend more time indoors watching TV than playing outside.

In addition to providing more nutritious school lunches and providing more opportunities for exercise during the school day, Gonzalez says the district has incorporated role models into its wellness initiatives to encourage children to adopt healthier habits.

For example, the district hired a physical education teacher from within the community and arranged for a state champion sprinter to organize tournaments and other activities for local children.

Schools across the nation have taken positive steps to change attitudes and behavior to promote healthier lifestyles. Among the many success stories described in Making It Happen!, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Team Nutrition:

• The student council at Williston (N.D.) Junior High School used to raise money by bringing a “candy cart” around the school. When parents expressed concerns, the students agreed to switch to a “breakfast cart” and sell healthier foods, such as milk, juice, and multigrain bars.

• At Louise Archer Elementary School in Vienna, Va., students used to be rewarded with a pizza party for working hard in class. Now, students are rewarded by being selected to accompany the principal on a one-mile walk around the neighborhood. They return to school energized and ready to learn.

• Students in a marketing class at Waiekea High School in Hilo, Hawaii, developed a campaign to raise awareness of the long-term effects of poor eating habits.

The students created flyers, television commercials, school newspaper advertisements, articles, and banners. They recorded a song that aired on local radio stations, organized an annual Dare to Drink Milk tug-of- war competition, and set up a contest giving students who eat the school lunch in the cafeteria a chance to win gift certificates for local stores.

Several speakers at the Healthy Schools Summit stressed the importance of parent outreach as a significant component of wellness initiatives.

“Local wellness policies have the potential to transform the way schools promote child health,” Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), the ranking minority member of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, told summit participants. But the success of these policies is “going to depend on the energy, activism, and outspokenness of people in their local communities.”

The results of a survey released by Action for Healthy Kids Sept. 27 found a significant gap between what parents think schools are doing to promote good nutrition and physical activity and what is really going on.

Nearly two-thirds of parents surveyed support restricting access to high-calorie, low-nutrient snack foods, and half believe their child’s school is doing an “excellent” or “good” job in this area.

In fact, a study of 27 states released by the CDC in Sept­ember found that 60 to 95 percent of schools in those states allow students to purchase nonnutritious snack foods or beverages from vending machines, a school store, or snack bar.

And while 77 percent of parents believe schools should have physical education every day, only 5.8 percent to 8 percent of schools do so.

Mary McKenna, a health scientist with the Division of Adolescent and School Health at the CDC, suggests that comprehensive wellness policies cover such issues as community and family involvement; graduation requirements for physical education; a requirement that daily recess take place before, rather than after, lunch; food-related fund-raising; food and beverage contracts; and food sold a la carte, in vending machines, and concession stands.

To overcome the many challenges that can derail wellness initiatives -- such as financial pressures, commercial influences in school, and the emphasis on test scores -- McKenna urges school leaders to focus on the idea that healthier children do better academically.

Gene Carter, executive director of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, says the No Child Left Behind Act’s pressure on schools to focus solely on test scores -- and cut back on physical education -- is “counterproductive.”