What happens when a school district’s wellness policy doesn’t cover student sports games or other after-school events? In one district in San Antonio, where about 63% of the residents are Latino, a school board president drove a policy change to implement healthier menu options at concession stands during school-sanctioned after-school events. With the support of various school officials, parents, and students, the new menu extends the district’s already-strong wellness policy to after-school hours and allows healthier items for students and parents.
The Issue of Healthy School Concession Food
Awareness: In San Antonio, Texas, the North East Independent School District (NEISD), which has a population of about 67,000 students, of which 55 percent are Hispanic, had already ...
Grocery store check-out lines can be one of the toughest spots for kids to make healthy choices. In the fall of 2006, concerned students in Anderson, a small city in northern California’s Shasta County, decided to take a stand against junk food in check-out aisles, and their impact rippled into many grocery stores across the country.
The Issue of Healthy Food
Awareness: A group of middle-schoolers in Anderson saw the daily struggle they and their peers faced at the grocery and convenience stores: a lot of junk food options at the check-out aisles. They were fed up with how the placement and heavy promotion of these unhealthy products encouraged kids to eat poorly—a poor diet is one of the biggest contributors to obesity and its related health complications. Learn: Already ...
Promotores working with the Chula Vista Community Collaborative (CVCC) participated in an asset mapping project in Chula Vista, Calif., in 2000. As part of a $5,000 grant for an adopt-a-block project—a joint effort of the San Diego County’s Substance Abuse Summit VI and the CVCC—promotores spoke with local residents to learn about the neighborhood’s assets, health, and safety concerns. It was then that they discovered a lack of active space in the community, and that residents wanted a park. Eventually, the promotores teamed up with community agencies, gathered information, and presented their case to the Chula Vista City Council. After receiving city approval, they gave input for the park’s design and watched construction of Harborside Park— the first park in that area ...
Growing up, Dante Jones always looked forward to weekend bike rides with his father. In those rides with his dad, Jones said he learned important life lessons and experienced the beauty of the outdoors, all while getting exercise. So when his daughter, Glory, was old enough to ride a bike he decided to start a similar tradition. He hoped it would allow them to spend more quality time together and instill in her the value of living an active lifestyle and the fun of activities like biking and skating. Jones noticed that other children from the neighborhood wanted to tag along when he and his daughter would go out for bike rides. He invited them along. He started to realize that there was a lack of positive role models in the neighborhood, and also a lack of afterschool ...
San Antonio sisters Makayla Esparza, 9, and Alyssa Esparza, 8, led largely inactive lifestyles. They saw a weight-loss contest on TV and decided to get active and help others get active, but they didn’t know of any afterschool programs to join and they didn’t have anyone to be active with. This led to their big idea: invite all the kids from their neighborhood for a 90-day get fit challenge to improve. With the help of their grandmother, Dawn Guerrero, Alyssa and Makayla posted an ad on Craigslist to invite kids to be active with them. They also invited members from the fitness community to show them ways to be fit. Soon kids from all over the neighborhood started showing up, and the group “Fitness FUNatics” was born. Although their 90-day challenge is now over, the ...
