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“The way the Alliance does it is right on,” explained Weirs. “We didn’t have any health efforts in place at the time, and we needed to know what a healthy school should look like. The Alliance gave us the road map, the tools and the recognition. They helped us identify where we were currently, where we were we going and what incentives we needed to get there. The Alliance made it so easy.”
The biggest task Weirs, as the district’s Wellness Coordinator, took on was getting sugar-sweetened sports drinks out of elementary schools. Many schools are hesitant to make this change because of their fears that sales will decrease.
Seven schools agreed to pilot the switch to water only, discovering that getting rid of sports drinks did not significantly impact them. They found that their other fundraisers, such as fun runs, brought in enough revenue without sports drinks.
Other issues addressed by Weirs and Hall County include cutting back on classroom celebrations with food, switching out a la carte ice cream with better products using the Alliance’s Product Calculator, and beginning to phase out advertising of food that aren’t even served within the schools.
Although Weirs has continued to be met with resistance, he often sees many signs of success. Especially when it comes to getting students to purchase healthier snacks and water.
Weirs said that the students do buy the healthier items. “I bought them 450 bottles of water and they sold out by 10 a.m. The healthier pretzels? Sold out. They had to call me and ask for more. Students will buy what is there!”
To read more about this story and to see more success stories from the Alliance for Healthier Generation’s, click here!
By The Numbers
142
Percent
Expected rise in Latino cancer cases in coming years
