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E-mail StoryWhat are the schools doing about obesity?
| Thursday, Jan 10 2008 9:29 AM
Last Updated: Thursday, Jan 10 2008 9:30 AM
Children need consistent messages about food, exercise and how both affect their health, experts say.
Educators are hoping schools can advance those messages through a districtwide wellness policy, a requirement from the federal Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004.
“So we’re saying, ‘How can we pull together to actually show students we care about their future health. So they don’t get the mixed messages — sodas and candy — when we’re saying ‘Oh, take care of yourself, take care of yourself,” said Jan Lewis the nutrition education consultant for California Department of Education’s nutrition services division.
The state education code and other regulations already mandate physical education, nutrition and food services.
For instance, students in grades one through six must have 200 minutes of physical education every 10 school days. And new nutrition rules this year cut calories, fat and fizzy drinks from campuses.
The wellness policy attempts to bring health into sharper focus, Lewis said.
“All of that has been prompted by a lot of stories in the media about increasing obesity among children,” she said, “increasing rates of childhood diabetes that is occurring and even higher incidences of ... high cholesterol among students of younger ages.”
Bakersfield City School District has seen the number of diabetic students who are insulin-dependent quadruple in the past two years, said Debbie Wood, the district’s health coordinator. Part of that increase can be linked to obesity.
Higher rates of obesity have also led to increased absences because of bullying, Wood said.
BCSD approved its wellness policy in July 2006 and has had a relatively smooth roll-out, said Wood, who wrote the policy and is chairing the advisory council responsible for monitoring it.
“When you think about (the district has) almost 28,000 students and I think I got four complaints asking ‘Why can’t I bring potato chips?’”
The policy covers more than just the nutrition rules. It also will monitor such things as absenteeism.
And teachers will incorporate nutrition into core curriculum.
Ruscel Reader, principal of Cesar Chavez School, said her science magnet school already practices much of the new policy. Its science lab analyzes chemical compositions of foods and discusses their affects on the body, she said.
“We want to help them with life long habits,” Reader said. “If they don’t internalize all this stuff, it’s not going be a benefit ... down the line.”
But Wood emphasized that students are a captive audience for only six hours a day, 180 days a year. Parents must be involved in health education, she said.
She’s hoping the new policy will help expand a nutrition program at several district sites for parents.
Highlights of BCSD’s wellness policy
School organizations should use non-food items for fundraising.
If it does sell food or beverages for fundraising, they should be sold at least one hour after school lets out and must meet nutrition standards.
School staff should not use nonnutritious foods as a reward for students’ academic performance, or withhold food or beverages as punishment.
School celebrations involving food are limited to two per year.