In early April 2013 Lakeview Community Schools added salad bars, called fruit and vegetable bars because of their various offerings, at not only their junior and senior high schools, but also at some of their elementary schools. These salad bars help increase the consumption of fruits and vegetable for young students. Without salad bars, students are only given a certain option for fruits and vegetables, resulting in many foods being wasted. Often times young students who do not like a food or cannot eat it due to lost teeth or lack of ability (example: young students often do not know how to peel oranges or other fruits that are prepped at homes by parents) will throw away foods, not getting any of the nutrients they need from those foods. "Fourth-grader Cassie Rathbone had applesauce ...
Through a Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities grant, members of the Central California Regional Obesity Prevention Program (CCROPP), and Ceres Partnership for Healthy Children worked throughout the Central Valley of California, to create initiatives to improve access to healthy foods and safe places for physical activity. CCROPP also developed an innovative grassroots community leadership program, so that Latinos could feel better equipped for becoming active leaders in their community. This video describes some of the challenges that residents living in the Central Valley face and demonstrates some of the work that CCROPP is doing to transform ordinary parents into leaders of their community. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGpX3LQn_RI Program coordinators at CCROPP talk about the ...
During the 83rd Texas Legislative Session Rep. Diane Patrick (R-Arlington) introduced a bill (H.B. 1018), that would require Texas public schools to create a campus improvement plan with goals to improve physical activity and fitness. Campus improvement plans would be required to include goals to increase physical activity and fitness among students; student fitness assessment data, and would require all school health advisory councils (SHAC) to establish a physical activity and fitness planning subcommittee. Once implemented, the bill would require SHACs to include recommendations made by the physical activity and fitness subcommittee, in a annual written report. The full text to H.B. 1018, which would require a campus improvement plan to improve physical activity and fitness at Texas ...
Schools across the country are getting excited about Fuel Up to Play 60 a school based initiative--organized through the National Football League (NFL) and the National Dairy Council (NDC)--that encourages students in grades K-12 to eat healthy foods, participate in at least 60 minutes of daily physical activity, and to lead school wellness initiatives. As of 2012, the group reported that 11 million students in 73,000 schools nationwide were participating in the program which uses social marketing and a six-step approach to improve student health. Fuel up to Play 60's six-steps to improving school health are: Join the League- register on-line and spread the word about Fuel Up to Play 60;
Build Teams and Draft Players- get other students or even the whole school involved;
Kickoff- ...
In January of 2009, the Healthy Out-of-School Time coalition was formed and by April of 2011 the group had adopted the healthy eating and physical activity quality standands (HEPAQS) for out-of-school time. In this article from Childhood Obesity, Wiecha et al. (2012) discuss the protocol used to develop the HEPAQS as well as the implications they may have on policy development. HEPAQS includes 11 standards for Healthy Out-of-School Time, that could serve as voluntary guidelines for out-of-school programs and curricula.The physical activity component of this document offers guidelines for: best practices;
staff training;
social support;
program support; and
environmental support. According to a recent study, although Latino children met screen time viewing recommendations, ...
The Cooper Institute and United Way Metropolitan Dallas have collaborated to form the Healthy Zone School Program. The Healthy Zone School Recognition Program encourages schools to implement policies and initiatives to help fight childhood obesity, in the Dallas area. In order to be a part of the program, schools must go through a competitive selection procedure. To be considered for the program a school must demonstrate that it: promotes healthy eating;
provides various opportunities for children to participate in physical activity;
provides physical education that lives up to the standards of the National Association for Sport and Physical Education; and
has established a School Health Advisory Committee (SHAC) that is comprised of various stakeholders. If a school lacks any ...
Competitions like the HEB Community Challenge prompt communities to make healthy lifestyle changes, and help raise awareness of childhood obesity. In 2012, a total of 38 mayors across Texas and several school officials recorded videos asking members of their community to participate in this state wide challenge. A total of 324 communities were enlisted in the challenge and 14,517 individuals were engaged in the effort to make their community a healthier one. At the end of the competition the winning cities of the challenge were San Antonio, Brownsville, and Pflugerville. This video showcases the top nine scoring communities in the H-E-B Community Challenge. One winner was selected from a small, medium, or large city. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4sdcm2qUsw Not only did the Healthy ...
Healthy Living Matters (HLM), a childhood obesity prevention collaborative, has committed to curbing obesity in the Houston/Harris County area by using policy action to make healthier changes in communities. Made up of a handful of local leaders and professionals, HLM engages youth as change-agents in their communities. After empowering the youth to assess current food access and built environment within their Houston/Harris County neighborhoods, they hope to educate at-risk communities on what can be done to make healthy living easier. HLM continuously monitors federal, state and local policy trends that impact childhood obesity. By year two, they hope to put out a Community Action Plan, which will serve as a roadmap for policy implementation. While HLM hopes to affect environmental ...
Houston Independent School District (HISD) in Texas is further addressing the growing issue of childhood obesity by creating a well rounded wellness policy. "The new Houston ISD wellness policy, currently being drafted by the School Health Advisory Council [SHAC], will directly address the use of food as a classroom reward (as well the equally distressing use of exercise as a punishment)." says Bettina Siegel, author of the blog The Lunch Tray The USDA has been increasing policies on school foods and competitive foods, by making nutrition standards for school meals in the past, and are currently creating standards for competitive foods in school snack lines. However schools or districts themselves must take the next steps in changing their policies on standards for fundraisers, ...
