Question 3
According
to these studies school wellness policies are now required, but few are making
a significant impact. What are some ways
that RDs who are food service directors or active in their community can use their expertise to help
promote wellness in our schools?
posted by Angela V @ 6:14 AM
15 comments
15 Comments:
I think the first step to promoting wellness is to assess what is needed. For example, the director may see a need for the FFVP in their elementary schools. Implementing this program in qualifying schools within the district not only educates the children receiving the fruits and vegetables, but teachers and parents. This reaches all aspects of the community. A great resource is those on a wellness committee. Wellness committees are often made up of district faculty, health department employees, teachers, parents, etc. Utilizing this team and sharing ideas is a way to create something that may not be attainable otherwise. An example would be creating a curriculum that combines physical education with nutrition education and wellness and could be tailored based on age/grade.
Well the first step is to motivate the RD to take steps to enforce a program like this. For schools who are well funded it is easier to get them to adopt this, but for schools that are struggling to get by it will be hard to get them to enforce any kind of a program. Other than this though they can start cooking clubs, give grocery store tours, health fairs, fitness goals with prizes, and much more. Also, bringing the parents in to get them doing these activities with the children is a must! Try having wellness events that coincide with parent teacher conferences or something may help this.
Alana makes some good points. A FFVP is an easy and effective way to promote wellness and not spend a lot of money due to subsidization. I also very much agree that their needs to be combined physical education and nutritional components in schools. Making these classes something more than a blow off class and having an actual impact may be the most effective way of all to reach the kids.
Alana I completely agree with you 100%. I also think that implementing a school employee wellness program will help to educate the teachers, supporting their wellness efforts. Then they can help role model healthy behaviors and even incorporate them into their lessons.
I think great efforts in health education, physical education, school nutrition services healthy and safe school environment and family/community involvement,as well as health services, mental services, and social services would increase wellness as a whole.
Nate-I love the idea of grocery store tours or holding cooking classes! Such a great learning experience for kids and parents. I think it is really important to not only teach kids healthy food sources, but how they can prepare them!
I think starting with education of parents, kids, and staff is a great way to be active. I think there are many things an RD could do at a school. He/she could give talks on different topics such as sports nutrition and give cooking classes and send handouts to parents about healthy eating at home and healthy food to send with their children when they go to school or activities. I think home ec is still taught so bringing in more nutrition education while teaching the basics of cooking is important. All I remember from that class is learning how to make pie crust and bread. I think RDs could do quite a bit in a school beyond just dealing with school lunch.
Teaching kids about health from an early age is a great way to get them involved at the start so that they can't say "I didn't know." Through teaching, getting kids involved in cooking is another great way to make them proud of what their eating. I know that kids like to help make or grow foods and when they do, they are much more likely to consume it. Setting up programs in schools to teach kids about nutrition and basic cooking techniques with healthy ingredients would be a great way to accomplish this.
I will be a bit of a devil's advocate here and say that I think it is the government's responsibility to come up with a comprehensive wellness policy that would apply to every school. It has already been mandated that schools come up with policies, why not make it easy on everyone and come up with a checklist of things that are required for schools? Beyond the standard school lunch requirements, they could make it a requirement to have at least 40 minutes of physical exercise every day,specifications on what types of foods can be served when, etc. I think RD's could really get a lot accomplished in schools if the rules were set in stone and the RD was the enforcer or promoter of the policy rules.
I think there needs to be some kind of connection between the community and the SFE. I think Farm to School programs would be an ideal way for an RD to get involved and make this connection. I also think that RDs could engage other members of the community in such things as cooking classes, gardening, and other hands-on learning opportunities for the kids.
There have been several great ideas mentioned.
Because of the tight budget of most schools, these sorts of programs would be perfect for interns to head up!
I also agree that we need to assess what the schools actually need, that way we get the most bang for our buck and don't waste our time on programs just to say we did them.
Also, not just interns, but many dietitians are looking to become more involved in community endeavors. I think there is a lack of communication between schools and local dietetic professionals.
I think as RDs that are active in the community but not in school foodservice, working with school foodservice directors to make change is essential. It is very easy to critique the less than ideal practices of some school foodservice directors, so giving them our time and working with them to create positive change would be best. I agree with Taylor that there seems to be distance between the two (yet one) professions. Keeping an open mind and being able to work with school foodservice directors, not critique them, would be so beneficial for the children and school district. After seeing the amount of work that goes into a foodservice director's day outside of the nutrition field, I can see how they may need some help and new ideas to make positive change.
A great way to promote wellness in schools would be with the help of the teachers and parents. If there was some time carved out for nutritional education activities for kids I think presenting healthier food options in the cafeteria would be more receptive. In order to make healthier food choices kids need to know what foods are healthy options and more importantly why they should be eating them. Also, maybe schools could implement after school nutrition activities for both students and their families (sharing recipes, seasonal fruits/veg, label reading education…)
I agree with a few others that it would be really beneficial for community dietitians to get involved with food service dietitians in order to promote nutrition and wellness education. Setting up community events could have the potential to benefit numerous schools versus just one, as well as families. Being able to connect the community events to the school food service environment would really help facilitate the learning of these nutrition education concepts.
Alana - great idea to utilize the wellness committee. This group is obviously for the exact purpose to provide a healthy environment for kids. I think becoming involved with that committee and having a strong voice in it would go a long way.
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