Healthy nutritional standards are vital for school districts, but the Wenatchee School District in Washington wasn’t providing the healthiest food environment it could for its 7,000-plus students. That is, until Kent Getzin, the district’s Director of Food Services, pushed for improvements to the district’s school wellness policy. Given that the state of Washington closely aligned with the national trend of one of three children being obese, Getzin seized the opportunity to educate school officials and parents on creating healthier food options in a district with a 46.2% Latino student population and 60% of students depending on free or reduced lunch. Getzin set his sights on updating the district’s outdated nutritional standards and emphasized continual support for ...
Parent organization Real Food for Kids (RFFK) aims to improve the nutritional quality of food served at the public schools in Fairfax County, Va. These parents want all students to get healthy, fresh food that will fuel their bodies for physical and educational performance. As stated on their website: “We know, just as you do, that when a child is well-fed with nutritious, real food, he/she is healthier, better behaved and better able to succeed in and out of the classroom.” By doing research and educating themselves, they discovered the volume and breadth of processed foods and foods with artificial dyes and additives being served at their schools, even though these foods were allowed by USDA nutrition guidelines for school lunches. The parent group pushed for a new ...
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 ...
Many of America's children struggle with obesity. That’s why we're excited to announce that Salud America! has received a two-year, $2.1 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) for its ongoing pursuit of healthy changes to address epidemic of childhood obesity across the nation. Salud America! will expand its 2,000-member network and develop a digital infrastructure to support, inform, and empower healthy changes. This digital infrastructure will create content and communications on research, training, and education on childhood obesity to empower people to start or support healthy changes. Please join the network here. “In the midst of National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month, we’re extremely pleased that RWJF is supporting our unprecedented ...
