| Author |
Message |
Mark Little (Mlittle)
New member
Username: Mlittle
Post Number: 1
Registered: 2-2005
| | Posted on Sunday, February 27, 2005 - 6:42 am: |       |
My middle school has many negative nutritional influences...a junk food cart for lunch, a school store selling candy, soda machines, many junk food incentives in the classroom to name a few. I'm in the process of collecting research that shows that a high sugar diet can have serious adverse effects on brain function and behavior. I believe that making significant changes (in terms of these negative influences) may be the last big change we can make that will improve test scores. I'm having trouble getting more than 50% of my staff behind the idea. I'd like to know what others think or have done in this direction. |
Donald J. Levine (Ctmanpe)
Junior Member
Username: Ctmanpe
Post Number: 9
Registered: 2-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 29, 2005 - 4:44 am: | |
I agree Mark. Just last night a colleague of mine spoke about junk food and changing the climate of our school cafeteria and what we allow in our school's for celebrations. It was thought provoking. It will have to take policy or legislation that demands policies for changes to take place unless everyone involved in schools truly cares. |
becky pope (Bpope)
New member
Username: Bpope
Post Number: 1
Registered: 7-2005
| | Posted on Friday, July 01, 2005 - 9:31 pm: | |
At my high school we developed a health council that is comprised of administrators, teachers, support staff, and students. Everyone on the council is committed to changing the nutritional standards in our school cafeterias in our district, and working toward the goal of meeting students' physical and emotional needs, as well as academic needs. (We want to be leaders and role models in health and nutrition, rather than being dragged into it by legislation.) We sent a team to visit a school district that completely revamped their cafeteria by eliminating ala carte foods and now only offer healthy meals---no candy, no soda, etc. The students who went with the group for the visit said the food was really good and that they would actually eat school lunch if ours were similar. Their were other changes they made that helped encourage students to eat well. Our administration decided to ease into our changes more slowly than our council would like (we want them to be pioneers and just jump in feet first), but we have at least developed a master health plan that includes stocking all soda machines with water (plain and those that are flavored without using artificial flavors), 100% juice, and milk---no sodas or other sugar-laden drinks. It also calls for eliminating candy and soda sales as school fundraisers. We are trying to convince reluctant colleagues that it's not ethical to profit on sales of items that are detrimental to our students' health, no matter what difficulties that might incur. Yes, yearbook, sports teams, and so forth will take a hit on their fundraising, but would those advisors trade the health of their own children to make ends meet? We shouldn't be doing that to our students, either. As passionate as our council members are, though, we realize that we need to not be judgmental or obnoxious about it, but rather try to help the staff see the vision for helping students become healthy young adults whose quality of life (for the rest of their lives!) could be enhanced because of our efforts. |
Donald J. Levine (Ctmanpe)
Junior Member
Username: Ctmanpe
Post Number: 12
Registered: 2-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, July 02, 2005 - 3:34 am: | |
Becky fantastic post. I've been working on our district school health indices and one of the key factors in all of the schools involving student health and well-being is what we are feeding the children, young adults at school and what they are eating on their own. Your effort is outstanding. Thanks for the informative post.
Email me if you have any written policies I'd love to see what you've produced. |
JiJi Jonas (Jiji)
Junior Member
Username: Jiji
Post Number: 2
Registered: 7-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, July 07, 2005 - 6:03 pm: | |
Hi,
I'm half-way excited about the bill we just passed in Louisiana about nutrition. The bill states that 50% of the products in the high school vending machines have to be healthy snacks. We tried for 100% but the principals and coaches were against this because of the money they make off the machines. At least this is a start and next time we will try for 100% again. |
Lisa Hawk (Lhawk)
New member
Username: Lhawk
Post Number: 1
Registered: 2-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 24, 2005 - 5:43 am: | |
We are trying to revamp our snack shack at school. I am looking for vendors who can supply the store with healthier snacks. Does anyone know which company we could contact? |
Paula Summit (Summit5)
Member
Username: Summit5
Post Number: 27
Registered: 2-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 24, 2005 - 8:30 am: | |
I would contact your current vendor and see what they have to offer in the way of healthy snacks. I think many vendors are seeing and understanding the trend for healthier snacking. |
Lindsay Anne Toia (Angelt8616)
Junior Member
Username: Angelt8616
Post Number: 3
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, November 03, 2005 - 11:46 am: | |
Mark, I totally agree with you. I think that we need to change our nutritional influences. At my high school we had a ton of vending machines, pop machines and even two ice cream machines. It was absolutely terrible. These are not the items that students should be eating during school. Students need "brain food," in order to be able to function throughout a day of school. While I was observing a school this semester, I saw that a bagged breakfast was given to each student before they went to their homerooms. I think that is a great idea. The bagged breakfast had a muffin, apple and a juice box. These are great food items that the students were eating during homeroom. Something like this could be a way to get rid of the vending machines and pop machines. |
Lindsay Anne Toia (Angelt8616)
Junior Member
Username: Angelt8616
Post Number: 4
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, November 03, 2005 - 11:46 am: | |
Mark, I totally agree with you. I think that we need to change our nutritional influences. At my high school we had a ton of vending machines, pop machines and even two ice cream machines. It was absolutely terrible. These are not the items that students should be eating during school. Students need "brain food," in order to be able to function throughout a day of school. While I was observing a school this semester, I saw that a bagged breakfast was given to each student before they went to their homerooms. I think that is a great idea. The bagged breakfast had a muffin, apple and a juice box. These are great food items that the students were eating during homeroom. Something like this could be a way to get rid of the vending machines and pop machines. |
