What schools can do

Schools play an important role in children’s lives and can do more than any other institution to promote lifetime health. Children spend much of their time in the school setting and are impacted by the school environment, for better or worse. The Surgeon General recently released a “call to action” encouraging schools to join a nationwide effort to prevent overweight and obesity.

“Public health approaches in schools should extend beyond health and physical education,” said former Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher, “to include school policy, the school physical and social environment and links between schools and families and communities.”

 Children In Class

Schools can take the following action steps to ensure children’s health and academic success:

  • Provide a quality nutrition education and physical education program that helps students develop the knowledge, attitudes, skills and behaviors to adopt, maintain, and enjoy healthy eating habits and a physically active lifestyle.
  • Ensure that school meal programs meet nutrition standards.
  • Adopt comprehensive wellness policies ensuring that all foods and beverages available on school campuses and at school events contribute toward eating patterns that are consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
  • Prohibit access to vending machines, school stores and other venues that compete with healthy school meals.
  • Ensure that an adequate amount of time is provided for students to eat school meals.
  • Ensure fund-raising efforts support healthy eating.

An integrated approach to nutrition education is needed

Teachers have a lot on their “to do” list already to ensure students meet state learning standards, so how will they find the time to provide the knowledge and skills students need to make healthy food choices? The answer lies in integrating nutrition education into core curriculum areas, including math, science, language arts and social science. The NET Loan Library contains a number of sequential, integrated nutrition curricula that are available for loan. The integrated approach to nutrition education, for example, allows teachers to teach students about percentages while showing them how to use the Nutrition Facts labels on foods to make wise food choices or by using a garden project to teach students about science while encouraging consumption of fruits and vegetables. For help locating integrated lessons or a curriculum that meet your needs, contact Illinois NET at 1-800-466-7998.

Study finds high-fat snacks, high-sugar beverages common

While federal child nutrition programs are governed by nutrition standards, other foods sold in the school are not. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s School Health Policies and Programs Study 2000 indicates that 73.9 percent of middle/junior high and 98.2 percent of senior high schools have either a vending machine, school store, canteen or snack bar where students can purchase food and beverages.

These outlets most commonly offer beverages high in added sugar and snacks, cookies and other baked goods that are not low fat. More than two-thirds allow students to purchase these items during school lunch periods. While a la carte foods — foods offered in the cafeteria in addition to reimbursable meals — tend to be healthier, more than one-half of high schools sell ice cream, frozen yogurt, salty snacks and baked goods that are not low in fat and beverages that are high in added sugar.

School policymakers can lead the way

When surveyed about what would be needed for national school health guidelines to be implemented in schools, school health practitioners responded that a solid foundation of policy is critically needed. Without commitment at the highest level of school leadership, implementing a well-coordinated school health program is difficult. For help in establishing effective policies that should reap short-term benefits for student learning and long-term benefits for public health see the resources below.

Additional Resources 

  1. Local wellness policy resources
  2. Children in crisis: The trends are alarming
  3. A la carte and vending items for a healthy school environment
  4. Twenty ways to raise funds without candy
  5. Improving children’s health: How school policymakers can make a difference
  6. Resources for education policymakers
  7. Resources for school foodservice staff