School Wellness Policy

After talking to E's teacher about food rewards in the classroom, I began to wonder how it was alright, in general, to give kids unhealthy food at school. I started looking at the school lunch menu (which I'll get in to in a later post) and wondered what the regulations were for food provided by schools.

In my research, I found that schools who participate in the National School Lunch Program (or any other USDA run nutrition program - most do), are required to have a wellness policy. According to the USDA Team Nutrition website, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 "requires each local educational agency participating in the National School Lunch Program or other federal Child Nutrition programs to establish a local school wellness policy for all schools under its jurisdiction. Each local education agency must designate one or more local education agency officials or school officials to ensure that each school complies with the local wellness policy."

At the very least, a school wellness policy is supposed to have goals for promoting good nutrition, nutrition education and physical activity. The nutrition guidelines should promote student health and wellness and work towards reducing childhood obesity. The policy should also have provisions for teachers, the school board, school administrators, students, parents and the general public to participate in developing and updating the policy.  Moreover, the public is to be informed and updated on the policy contents.

So why didn't I know anything about it? I want to participate! Back to the internet. I looked at a lot of the school district websites in my area. Many of them included their school breakfast and lunch menus along with their wellness policy and other nutrition and physical activity information. My son's school district did not have this information readily available.  More emails! Two questions - where can I find the district wellness policy and how can I join the council that reviews it? I emailed E's teacher, she passed along my inquiry to the principal. The principal suggested I contact the district nurse. The district nurse confirmed that the policy and council existed, but didn't tell me how to find the policy or join the council. So I emailed the food services supervisor. She was very helpful in many regards, but didn't tell me how to get a copy of the policy or how to join the review council. I emailed the after school care director. (Another future post about the after school "snacks" served). We even spoke on the phone. She, too, was incredibly helpful in many ways and even volunteered to get more information and get back to me about the wellness policy and council. Most of the people I contacted were incredibly helpful and very receptive to my concerns. But... I still didn't have the information I was looking for.

*Sigh*

A few days later, I found the district wellness policy after searching through the school board policies online. If your child's school doesn't include the wellness policy online along with the school menus, then you will likely locate it with the rest of the school board policies. I encourage you to read your child's school wellness policy (well, read all the policies, actually). I've read a few local district policies and there is some variation. Some policies are very basic and only reiterate the USDA guidelines. Some are more expansive and address food in the classroom, food rewards, and recess requirements. I found that our district's wellness policy was pretty basic and there is room for improvement. If you want to make changes towards a healthier school, start with this policy. Parental involvement is included in the provisions!  

I've talked to a lot of parents and read a lot of articles, blog entries, Facebook rants, etc. It is ok for us to complain to each other about these things, it is much better to be informed and speak up if we don't like what we see.  We have to be involved and knowledgeable and vocal about what happens at school.  Our kids deserve it!