Wellness Policy Introduction
On July 1st, 2006 a new federal
law (PL 108.265 section 204) goes into effect. This new law, which
is referred to as the "Local Wellness Policy", requires that every
school that participates in USDA Child Nutrition programs meet
requirements that are aimed at reducing childhood obesity in our
schools. At the California School Nutrition Association (CSNA) we
are concerned about the alarming trends in childhood obesity and
poor nutrition and are dedicated to helping California’s schools
meet the requirements of this new Local Wellness Policy.
Some of the Local Wellness Policy requirements deal with the foods being provided to
students everyday and, for the most part, you are already working
towards these requirements. Other requirements more directly affect
student learning as goals for “nutrition education”, “physical
activity”, and “school wellness” are also included within this
policy. We believe you can help your districts in formulating your
own Local Wellness Policy and also help principal’s meet these
additional requirements.
Click here for an excellent Wellness Policy Link
Local Wellness Policy Fundamentals--To
read more about the Local Wellness Policy, download this PDF titled
"Local
Wellness Policy Fundamentals"
Establishing
Nutrition Standards for Schools Component--Click
here to download CSNA's Nutrition Standards Document and Rational.
Click here for the additional Nutrition Standards Matrix
Nutrition Education Component--To
fight the current obesity trends we need to help educate children on
food choices that are healthy and stress the importance of learning
healthy eating and exercise habits at an early age. We are
recommending that California elementary schools use an interactive
CD, “Good Food and Play Make a Balanced Day”, to meet the nutrition
education requirement.
“Good Food and Play Make a Balanced Day”
provides excellent nutrition education for a reasonable price (as
low as $2.00 a CD). It is entirely self-directed so it requires very
little valuable teacher time to include additional nutrition
training in a school. It can even be given to a child as a homework
assignment or be implemented into a school’s media center options.
Included on the CD is a brief but important section geared towards
parents that contains valuable information and statistics concerning
long-term results of children’s nutrition choices.
CSNA has been involved in the development and
review of “Good Food and Play Make a Balanced Day” and receives a
10% royalty on sales of this CD in California. This makes it a great
fundraiser for our organization! You can find out more about this
nutrition education CD by visiting the
www.goodfoodandplay.com
Web site and clicking on the “Online Demo” link.
Approaching
Principals --Once
your district committee has gone through the process of formulating
a Local Wellness Policy and has agreed on the “Good Food and Play”
learning tool to complete the nutrition education requirement each
of you will need to meet with your elementary school principals and
help educate them about what is involved with the Local Wellness
Policy.
Download this PDF on
Approaching Principals for instructions.
Physical Activity Component
--There are many things that a
school can do to meet the physical activity component. The basic
intent of the policy is to help children better understand why
physical activity is important for them and/or to get them involved
in physical activity more consistently.
Other School-based Activities Component
-- There are many things that
a school can do to meet the school-based activity component, from
updating school lunchrooms, to instituting a school health council,
to developing a policy of the kinds of treats parents or children
bring for school events. The basic intent of this requirement is to
help schools communicate the wellness message to both children and
their parents.
Summary
-- Making a change in
children’s eating patterns will take a collective effort. Childhood
obesity is an important issue throughout the nation, as well as
California. At CNSA we want to be the leaders in the battle against
childhood obesity. The Local Wellness Policy law gives us an
opportunity to take a leadership role.
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