Meeting with the Assistant Superintendent

This week, I finally had the opportunity to have a meeting with my son's school district assistant superintendent. I was so upset when I missed the first Wellness Council meeting, but the the assistant sup. was kind enough to email me an update on what was discussed and the major points that were made. Since I had about a million questions on that information, I set up a meeting instead of responding by email.

The meeting was about an hour long and I left it feeling positive... but impatient. I'm the kind of person who wants everything done rightnowimmediatly. What I learned over the course of the meeting is that I'm going to need to learn patience. It's not my strongest asset.

The good news is that things are moving along: 

• The district now has a Wellness website that includes information on the Wellness Policy and the Wellness Council. The lunch and breakfast menus are found there. There are also links to various websites, including the Alliance for a Healthier Generation.

• At the next School Board Meeting, the Board will receive the Wellness Council's recommendations. The recommendations are fairly neutral and mostly reinforce the Policy. I'm really happy about one recommendation in particular about the use of non-nutritious food rewards. I can share more about those recommendations with you once the Board has received and commented on them.

• The assistant superintendent will try to acquire the actual ingredient list for the school breakfast and lunch menus. I talked about the trans fats and loads of sugars that hide in the frozen veggie and fruit cups. 

• I was able to talk about the pop tarts, Frito boats and other decidedly unhealthy foods that are served as a "snack" during after school day care. Notes were taken and there will be follow up on this.

• The after school day care will be proactive about playing inside during what our neck of the woods refers to as "bad air days". (Yet another obstacle this valley faces that effects resident's ability to be active outside.)

These are all really good things! I am truly excited and happy about the progress we are making!  I'm trying to figure out my next steps. Should I get a group of like-minded parents together? Should I focus more on E's school and talk more with the principal? Maybe there are other local groups that I need to look at to see if there are other ways to volunteer my time?

I don't want to over-extend, but I can't sit on my hands either!  Do I have any readers that could tell me about what you've done or other ideas to make an impact on the community? For now, I'm going to go do more research!