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Massachusetts lawmakers are considering mandating how much time public school students put in at the gym. As currently drafted, the legislation would require an average of 30 minutes a day for younger children, and 45 minutes for older students. Existing state law only requires that physical education be taught, but it does not require a certain amount of time. Such mandates were eliminated in 1996, but now medical and educational experts are saying a return to phy. ed. is needed to help curb the rising rates of obesity among youth and teens.
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In Los Angeles area schools, administrators are bemoaning the fact that a junk food ban is causing them to lose money for programs like field trips and marching bands. The ban went into effect in July and officials thought the lost revenues would be recouped through the sale of more healthy snack foods. So far, that hasn’t happened.
Does this matter to you? Should junk food fund school programs? What other forms of revenue could you envision for these school programs? Use the comment box below.
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In California, one chef is working to connect the idea of getting kids to eat healthier food while allowing them to learn about growing, harvesting, and cooking fresh, local produce. In 1996, Alice Waters started the “Edible Schoolyard” initiative in a Berkeley middle school. Now her ideas are going districtwide. By 2014, every school in the district will have its own garden and a new cafeteria serving locally produced, fresh, organic food. The interactive curriculum will teach 10,000 students about gardening and cooking, and food in relation to history, geography, even drama and language arts. Our lids are off to this effort to get kids to eat healthier foods!
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State and national policies are ineffective tools in the on-going war against obesity in this country, according to a new report by a non-profit organization. The group, “The Trust for America’s Health”, advocates that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention become the nation’s “command center” in this war. Currently efforts come out of the Department of Agriculture and the Health and Human Services Department, among others. Giving this task to the CDC would be more effective, the group advocates.
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In Contra Costa County, California, even members of the county board of supervisors are realizing they have to eat better while they hang around the board room. One of the elected supervisors is proposing that half of the junk food in the county’s vending machines be replaced with more healthy alternatives. The man proposing the change assures fellow politicians there will still be “chocolate and grease of some kind” for those who can’t live without it, but he wants to add stuff of the fruit and nut variety. While the machines are primarily used by public workers, they are also used by members of the public while visiting county offices. The supervisor wants to set an example, in light of the nation’s rising obesity rates, he says. In the end, the board sent the proposal to a committee to be studied further, but meanwhile, our lids are off to Supervisor John Gioia!
Learn about Stonyfield's Healthy Vending Machine program for public schools.
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Here’s a frightening quote from a high school student in Fowlerville, Michigan, where junk food vending machines have been ousted: “I love Mountain Dew. I think it was better to have the pop because pop jump-starts you and puts you in a better mood.”
Well, the food service director and the Coordinated School Health Team thought differently when they put some pilot program money to use to provide healthier snacks to school kids, and they hope students like the one quoted above will learn a little bit about nutrition by the end of the school year. The new vending machines dispenses snacks that fit the initiative’s recommendations — they contain fewer than 300 calories, no more than six grams of fat, at least one gram of fiber and at least 10 percent of the daily requirement of Vitamin A or Vitamin C, calcium and iron. Soft drinks have been replaced by milk, juice and water, French fries have been eliminated from the cafeteria menu and all snack chips have been replaced by their baked equivalents. Our lids are off in salute to the Fowlerville schools!
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture will spend $9 million to continue and expand the Fruit and Vegetable Pilot Program (FVPP) in schools across the country this school year. In the 2002-2003 school year, a Waterloo, Iowa school participated in the project that brought more fresh fruits and vegetables into the schools (doesn’t that sound kind of ironic?). The program proved kids actually ate the darn things. In the pilot year, the USDA provided schools with an average of $94 per child for fresh fruit, dried fruit, fresh vegetables and, once a week, 100 percent fruit juice. The new foods were often served at snack times or special tasting events. The administrator was surprised at how much of it was eaten and notes that kids will eat new things if given the chance. "Some children had never tasted a fresh pear. One person bit into an orange without peeling it," said Jeanne Buzbee, a USDA economist.
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The Education Minister of Ontario intends to restrict in-school sale of treats like sports drinks and chocolate granola bars to students from kindergarten through Grade 8, according to the Ottawa Citizen. Approximately 27 percent of boys and 23 percent of girls in Grades 6 and 8 eat candy and chocolate bars daily. The Minister wants vending machines stocked with reasonably sized servings of water, juice and pretzels. Carbonated beverages have grown in size by 300 percent since the 1950s, he noted. Fellow politicos aren’t necessarily in favor of this idea, accusing the minister of “micro-managing”, trying to “parent” the students, and using this proposal to divert attention from a shakey school budget and school quality.
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Our healthy vending machines are big hit with the students at Caruso Middle School in Deerfield, Illinois, near Chicago. Since installing the machines Oct. 22, our smoothies and the other organic and natural snack foods are flying out the door! This is, as we say, a good problem to have. Caruso Middle School is one of three schools in the Chicago area that got the machines, and they join the 21 machines operating across the nation. Besides Stonyfield's Smoothies, the machines offer soy milk, fruit leather, baked pita chips and other products from other manufacturers. The snack foods all had to be taste-tested by the students before we stocked the machines, and they all have to meet nutritional guidelines. One student, according to the Chicago Tribune, said there's been a line of pupils at the machine during each lunch break.
You could win a healthy vending machine for your school.
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