"It’s time to flip the script, so all foods available (at school) have good nutritional value and students really have to go out of their way to consume empty-calorie snacks and meals,” says Stephanie Hamilton, an Oakland, California mother of three.

Hamilton got involved with the school district’s wellness committee because “as a community of color we are at risk for diabetes and obesity.” The committee—made up of parents, students, school officials, and community members—decides on new school policies for nutritious food, PE, and health and nutrition education. Wellness committees are required at schools that get federal funding for school lunch and breakfast programs. Parents can also promote nutrition and physical activity at their child’s school in other ways.

Cathy LeBlanc: “Everyone wins”

“(It’s) important that parents and community members advocate for what they feel is important,” says Cathy LeBlanc, a mother of three in Camptonville and part of her school district’s wellness committee. The committee met a handful of times and developed a plan to:

• Stop serving food high in fat and sugar.
  
• Include local farms. “We want to eat food from home whenever possible,” says LeBlanc. “We live in a small town so we know our food growers.” One school gets organic vegetables from the farm of a former student.
  
• Promote “cultural awareness through food,” says LeBlanc. The committee plans to ask farmers, where possible, to “grow food from different cultures that we (can) share and learn about,” she adds.
  
• Include more fresh vegetables in meals, with salads at lunch and produce from the school garden (tended by children and parents).
  
• Foster community health and wellness. Two local restaurants are “working on” offering healthier menu options, says LeBlanc. An eighth grader surveyed customers of the two local stores about which healthy and organic foods they’d like to see and plans to present the results to the store owners. The committee also held a fitness-a-thon—“push-ups, shooting baskets, running” along with a health education booth—to raise funds for a school health club, she adds.

Wellness committees give communities more power to make choices that serve their needs, says LeBlanc, adding “any time we bring folks together to work for the benefit of children, everyone wins.”

Stephanie Hamilton: “Make sure children’s choices are healthy”

Hamilton says Oakland’s wellness committee was “part of the critical mass” calling for healthier food and more physical activity. As a result, the district plans to”

• Offer free breakfast for all children at 25 schools
  
• Provide fresh produce in breakfasts and new salad bars at a dozen schools
  
• Have school gardens at 92 schools—and help teachers integrate garden learning into their curriculum.
  
• Stop serving fried chips, sugary breakfast cereals, sports drinks, and milk with bovine growth hormone
  
• Offer PE training for 40 elementary school teachers, including ways to include PE and health education in math, science, and social studies classes
  
• Provide help for children with asthma, diabetes, and mental health issues

“We should make sure all (children’s) choices are healthy, not just the ones we provide them at home,” says Hamilton.

Maria Gonzalez: “Happier and more confident”

Maria Gonzalez, Baldwin Park mother of two and a school aide, holds an after-school dance class at her youngest child’s elementary school. When the parent running the class left, Gonzalez was inspired to keep it going because her kids were having so much fun.

The class is open to the whole school and includes stretches, Mexican folk dances, dance routines from musicals, and dances the children create. Children “are so eager to join and the ones who are in the class have grown in self-confidence,” she says. Gonzalez also helps with a jogging class.

Outside of school, Gonzalez holds a dance club in a local park, to “teach culture as well as dance. My oldest child has lost 20 pounds and they both seem much happier and more confident. It has helped me to be more open with my own girls, as well as with other kids. It has also helped me to be more healthy and active,” she says.

PE “pushed out”

Dropping the Ball, a report from the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, finds that children who get more physical activity have more confidence, less depression, and do better in school. But California PE requirements (200 minutes every two weeks) are just two-thirds of what the federal government recommends (150 minutes every week). And, says the report, even these standards aren’t being met.

• Dropping the Ball found more than half of schools failed to meet state PE requirements. Online at www.publichealthadvocacy.org/droppingtheball.html
  
• Failing Fitness, from the California Endowment, found most PE classes included very little vigorous activity, particularly in elementary schools and schools in lower-income communities. Online at www.calendow.org

“The constant push to raise standardized test scores has pushed physical education out of the door and off the playground,” says Joe Herzog, representative for the California Association for Health and a former PE teacher. “There needs to be profound improvement in the enforcement of (PE time).”

School Wellness Plans

Here are some things you can do in your district:

Get involved: Talk with your school’s office staff or principal–ask to see the plan and to join the wellness committee. Some schools have begun implementing their plan, but parents can still get involved by attending meetings or doing occasional volunteer work, says Hamilton.

Help put the plan into action: Ask how you can help monitor that changes are taking place.

“Just when we were successful at getting salad in the cafeteria, they started selling Capri-Suns and donuts in the halls for fundraisers,” recalls Hamilton. “Sometimes it takes a conversation with the principal reminding her (about) the new food policy.” At other schools a few teachers and parents, as well as student government, pushed for a limit on junk food sales, she says.

Bring up wellness issues: make them heard at school site council and PTA meetings.

Resources

• Oct 1-2: School Wellness Conference, Anaheim. For more info, contact Karen Bellacera, 916-669-3259
  
• Team Nutrition, 703-305-1624, www.fns.usda.gov/tn/healthy/wellness_policyrequirements.html
  
• California Project Lean, 916-552-9907, www.californiaprojectlean.org
  
• Center for Public Health Advocacy, 530-297-6000, www.publichealthadvocacy.org
  
• Food Policy Advocates, 415-777-4422, www.cfpa.net