Student wellness, including good nutrition and physical activity, shall be promoted in the school’s educational program, school activities, and meal programs. This policy shall be interpreted consistently with Section 204 of the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004.
BELIEF STATEMENT
SISTER THEA BOWMAN CATHOLIC SCHOOL is committed to providing a learning environment that supports and promotes wellness, good nutrition, and an active lifestyle for students, staff, and families.
INTENT
The intent of this policy is to support the entire school environment in becoming aligned to healthy school goals that positively influence the beliefs and habits of students, staff, and families. Its intent is to promote health and wellness, good nutrition and regular physical activity. This policy also intends to provide staff members and families with the information and tools to instruct and model healthy eating and physical activity as a valuable part of daily life.
RATIONALE
STBCS committed to compliance with the legal requirements of Public Act 094- 0199 which amended the Illinois School Code, requiring that all districts have a wellness policy. This is directly related to the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004. This law requires local education agencies participating in a program authorized by the National School Lunch Act or the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 to develop a local wellness policy.
It is well-documented that an increasing and substantial number of children are overweight (a triple increase since 1980, according to the National Center for Health Statistics). Students need to exhibit good eating habits and have opportunities for adequate physical activity. The objectives of the wellness policy are to improve the school nutrition environment and promote good health with students, staff, and families.
School communities have the responsibility to help students acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to establish and maintain lifelong healthy lifestyles. Well-planned and well-implemented wellness programs have been shown to positively influence children’s health.
GOALS FOR NUTRITION EDUCATION
Students in kindergarten through grade 8 shall receive nutrition education. The program shall be designed to provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to adopt healthy eating behaviors.
- Students shall receive nutrition information through existing health and science and physical education curriculum
- Nutrition education should be provided to students each year. Contact hours may include nutrition education provided in health classes, in the cafeteria, at health and career fairs, field trips and assemblies.
Nutrition education shall be emphasized at the district, school, and classroom levels through a variety of media.
- Examples: Posters, color-coded healthy food choices, and promotional events.
The nutrition education program shall offer experiential learning opportunities that potentially have a greater impact on student attitudes and actions.
- Examples: Food tastings, family nutrition programs, sugar content studies, etc.
Staff members and parents will be offered training materials or other resources to assist in providing direction to students in the area of nutrition education.
- Examples: Web resources, newsletter, presentations, etc. GOALS FOR PHYSICAL ACTIVITY
Students in kindergarten through grade 8 shall participate twice weekly in physical education and have other opportunities for daily physical activity.
- The school shall provide a daily supervised recess period to encourage elementary students to be physically active.
STBCS shall provide information and activities that engage families as partners in providing physical activity beyond the school day.
- Examples include: family nutrition night, health fairs, open gym dates, newsletters with health tips, presentations to parent groups, etc.
GOALS FOR OTHER SCHOOL-BASED ACTIVITIES DESIGNED TO PROMOTE STUDENT WELLNESS
Healthy Eating
- The food service will make information available about the nutritional content of school meals.
- School meals shall be served in clean, safe and pleasant settings with adequate time provided for students to eat in accordance with state and federal standards and guidelines.
- All food service personnel shall have adequate pre-service training and regularly participate in professional development.
- Food providers shall work with suppliers to obtain foods and beverages that meet the nutrition requirements of school meals and nutrition standards for those sold individually.
- Food providers shall work closely with school instructional staff to reinforce nutrition instruction and foster an environment where students can learn about and practice healthy eating.
- Food providers shall take every measure to ensure that student access to foods and beverages on school campuses meets federa l,state and local laws and guidelines.
- Students, parents, school staff and community members bringing foods and beverages to school for parties/celebrations/meetings shall be encouraged to provide healthful options
- Schools will review fundraising sources and how they might be consistent with school nutrition goals.
- Partnerships between schools and food businesses should emphasize compliance with nutrition standards.
- Schools shall promote nutritious food and beverage choices consistent with the current Food Guide Pyramid such as fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy foods and whole grain products.
School Activities and Environment – Physical Activity
- Teachers of physical education will be provided training support and material resources to ensure the implementation of quality physical education activities.
- Physical education classes shall have a student to teacher ratio comparable to those in other curricular areas.
- Physical activity facilities and equipment on school grounds shall be regularly inspected for safety.
Food or Physical Activity as a Reward or Punishment
- School personnel shall be encouraged to use nonfood incentives or rewards with students and shall not withhold food from students as punishment.
- School personnel shall avoid withholding participation in physical education class as a punishment, unless the student is determined to be a disruptive influence in that class.
GUIDELINES FOR SCHOOL MEALS
School meals served shall be consistent with the recommendations of the Food Guide Pyramid and/or shall meet, at a minimum, the nutrition requirements and regulations for the National School Lunch Program and/or School Breakfast Program and all applicable state and local laws and regulations.
- The school food service department will be responsible in its planning and record-keeping procedures for following federal, state and local laws and regulations.
- The PRINCIPAL shall be responsible for ensuring that the school meets the local wellness policy requirements.
- The PRINCIPAL will include parents, students, teachers of physical education, and school board members in on-going wellness policy process
- The PRINCIPAL will conduct an assessment of the wellness policy every three years to determine
- Compliance with the wellness policy
- How the wellness policy compares to model wellness policies
- Progress made in attaining the goals of the wellness policy
- The PRINCIPAL modify or update the wellness policy as appropriate.
- The PRINCIPAL will make the policy available to the public through the family handbook and the school website.