September Summary

As we all know, the obesity rate in children is alarming.  According to NHANES data from 2009-2010, 32.6% of 6-11 year-olds are overweight or obese, and 18% are obese.  School-aged children spend the majority of their day at school, and most consume a meal at school.  For this reason it is important to analyze the School Food Environment (SFE) to better understand the impact it has on the health of the nations children.

Legislation has been introduced that mandates the development of wellness policies. However, in their analysis of data gathered by the Bridging the Gap program, Turner and Chaloupka indicate there is minimal of improvement in the SFE of most schools.  Chriqui and Chaloupka recommend that wellness policies should be updated to require transparency and an advisory council to allow for the possibility of increased community awareness, buy-in, and support.

Question 1

Due to the recent update to NSLP guidelines, many of the measures used to evaluate the nutritional content of school lunches as part of the SFE in this study have become mandatory requirements.  When asked to propose alternative strategies to evaluate the health of this component of SFE respondents focused on two main approaches considered by many to interrelated: providing nutrition education and measuring what students consume at school meals.

Several people felt that providing nutrition education to both students and staff (particularly kitchen staff) could positively influence the health of the SFE.  Joci suggested that testing student knowledge would help identify the current level of knowledge and highlight areas to target with education.

The majority of responders agreed that it is essential to evaluate what students are consuming, as well as what they are throwing away.  Data gathered via a plate waste study could in a variety of ways.  Nate indicated it could be a measure of the health of the SFE.  Erin and Emily suggested basing the content of nutrition education on foods that are not well received by students and stressed the need to improve the appeal of the foods that score poorly.

Molly felt that the SFE could also be evaluated by tracking the health of students as well as their academic success.   While the idea was well liked, Kelsey and Taylor did not feel that it would not directly correlate to the health of the SFE since most children eat the majority of their meals at home.

Amy’s suggestion of a providing a checklist, scoring system, and yearly evaluation to assist schools brings up an important point.  If schools are not aware of the features and importance of a healthy SFE, and they do not have the information and tools to improve, there will be little improvement in scores.  The new guidelines for school meals improve the nutritional content of meals, and if you read the details, provide the rational for the changes.  Unless schools take the initiative to understand and promote the changes through education the health of the students may not improve simply due to the content of the meals served.

Question 2

A declining number of schools (less than one quarter) surveyed by the Bridging the Gap program had a food and nutrition practitioner on staff.  The overwhelming feeling of the group is that the expense of having a highly trained professional on staff outweighs the benefits.  With many schools losing funding from the government, it is not a priority in the school budget.  There was also a feeling that there is a general lack of knowledge regarding the skills that RDs can offer to schools.  Molly, Taylor and Kelsey encouraged us all to be advocates for our profession and convince schools that we are needed.

Another reason for the lack of food and nutrition practitioners on staff may be that they are not always the most qualified to run the business side of school meals.  Alana pointed out that experience with managing staff and working with budgets is valuable for this type of position.  Joci related a story from her time working for Unit 5 where changes made by the director created a greater workload for staff and were detrimental to morale.  Erin agreed and commented that ultimately schools need someone who is capable of managing food production.   In order to stay within the budget, finding a food and nutritional professional is not a priority for schools.

Due to our area of study and future profession, of course everyone agreed that having an RD on staff would be beneficial in improving SFE.  As Molly stated “Who better than a dietitian who can address all impacts of the community and assess the menu and development of the children and their health than an RD”.   RDs would not only be able to manage the adherence to the nutritional guidelines of school lunch, but would also be able to enthusiastically promote the health value of the new guidelines and promote consumption of the more healthful foods.  They would also be qualified to teach nutrition to students and hopefully impact their health in a positive way for the long term.  Kelsey cautioned that while having an RD on staff would be beneficial, it will still be a challenge to get children to eat the healthier items due to taste preferences.

Question 3

A lot of great ideas were posted regarding ways that RDs who are food service directors or active in their community can help promote wellness in our schools.  Some common themes in the responses were the utilization of wellness policies and committees, providing nutrition education, and collaborating with the school food service director.

Alana and Taylor both pointed out that as part of a wellness initiative, the first order of business is to assess what is needed.  The committee comprised of district faculty, health department employees, teachers and parents can then work together to best use available funding to address issues of greatest importance.  Employee wellness policies can be used to encourage staff to make healthy choices and serve as role models for the students.

A number of educational strategies were noted:  cooking classes/clubs, grocery store tours, health fairs, lessons on basic nutrition, label reading, and making healthy choices, along with farm to school initiatives and school gardens.  Nate pointed out the importance of including parents in these activities where possible. 

Collaborating with schools and food service directors, but not critiquing them, was another idea proposed.  Due to their workload, Emily noted that food service directors “may need some help and new ideas to make positive change.”  As was discussed in response to the previous question, directors may often become focused on the day-to-day business of school meals and not have time to promote wellness within their school district.