Wellness Policy
Camptonville Union Elementary School
Wellness Policy and Statement of Responsibility
The CUESD Board recognizes that there is a link between nutrition education, the food served in schools, physical activity, and environmental education, and that wellness is affected by all of these. The Board also recognizes the important connection between a healthy diet and a student’s ability to learn effectively and achieve high standards in school.
The Board recognizes that it is the District’s role, as part of the larger community, to model and actively practice, through policies and procedures: the promotion of family health, physical activity, good nutrition, sustainable agriculture, and environmental restoration.
The Board of Education further recognizes that the sharing and enjoyment of food, and participation in physical activities, are fundamental experiences for all people and are a primary way to nurture and celebrate our cultural diversity. These fundamental human experiences are vital bridges for building friendships, forming inter-generational bonds, and strengthening communities.
Wellness Policy Preamble
• Whereas, a healthy diet is connected to a student’s ability to learn effectively and achieve high standards in school;
• Whereas, each day, students and their parents trust that the foods offered at school are wholesome and safe, and that the Governing Board is responsible for ensuring the safety of foods provided at school;
• Whereas, fresh, seasonal, local, sustainably grown foods are a primary and recommended source of nutrition for growing children, and pre-packaged, highly processed foods create a solid waste packaging management problem and expense for school districts;
• Whereas, small and mid-size farms and America’s rural communities are under economic stress, and the public dollars from farm-to-school programs create a steady and reliable source of income for farmers;
• Whereas, the knowledge and skill-base for farming, gardening, food preservation, cooking, and the ritual of the table are disappearing from American life;
• Whereas, public school is an excellent place to nurture and preserve America’s food traditions through storytelling, recipe swapping, rediscovering food ways, cooking classes, garden- and farm-based learning experiences, food served in the cafeteria, and connections to the core curriculum of science, math, language arts, history, geography, and social studies.
Wellness Policy Requirement 1
Set goals for nutrition education, physical activity, and other school-based activities that promote student wellness
Nutrition Education
To help ensure the health and well being of each student attending Camptonville Union Elementary School District, and to provide guidance to school personnel in the areas of nutrition, health, physical activity and food service, the Governing Board encourages teachers, principals, and Nutrition Services employees to recognize the lunch period as an integral part of the educational program of the district, and work to implement the goals of this policy.
The Governing Board will ensure that:
• No student in the Camptonville Union Elementary School District goes hungry during school;
• An economically sustainable meal program makes available a healthy and nutritious breakfast, lunch, and after-school snack to every student at every school so that students are prepared to learn to their fullest potential;
• CUES shall establish an instructional garden (tilled ground, raised bed, Container, nearby park, community garden, farm, or lot), of sufficient size to provide students with experiences in planting, harvesting, preparation, serving, and tasting foods, including ceremonies and celebrations that observe food traditions, integrated with nutrition education and core curriculum, and articulated with state standards;
• Staff shall integrate hands-on experiences in gardens and kitchen classrooms, and enriched activities such as farm field studies, farmers’ markets tours, and visits to community gardens, with core curriculum so that students begin to understand how food reaches the table and the implications that has for their health and future;
• Sampling and tasting in school gardens and kitchen classrooms shall be encouraged as part of nutrition;
• Staff is encouraged to utilize food from school gardens and local farms in kitchen classrooms and cafeterias based upon availability and acceptability;
• Schools shall use food as one of the components of education about human events, history, and celebrations, and shall encourage classes to use food and cooking as part of a learning experience that sheds light on the customs, history, traditions, and cuisine of various countries and cultures;
• Eating experiences, gardens, cooking classes, and nutrition education are integrated into the core academic curriculum at all grade levels;
• Schools shall promote food-centered activities that are healthful, enjoyable, developmentally appropriate, culturally relevant, and participatory, such as contests, promotions, taste testing, farm visits, school gardens, and kitchen classrooms;
• Lunch periods shall be scheduled so that students do not have to eat lunch unusually early or late;
• All school eating areas shall contain free, safe, drinking water sources and facilities for washing hands;
• At each school site, students shall play a role in a recycling program that strives to utilize the purchase of recycled products and maximizes the reduction of waste by recycling, reusing, composting and purchasing, recycled products;
• Meals will be attractively presented and served in a pleasant environment with sufficient time for eating, while fostering good eating habits, enjoyment of meals, good manners, and respect
for others;
• Students at the K–8 level will not be involved in the sale of candy, sodas, cookies and sweets at any school sponsored event or for any fundraising activity during school hours;
• Where public bond money is expended to repair or remodel a school; any repairs or upgrades to the good service area to the kitchen shall be put on the priority list;
• Food Services shall work to modernize computer equipment and programs.
Physical Activity
The Governing Board recognizes the positive benefits of physical activity for student health and academic achievement. Recognizing that physical education is a crucial and integral part of a child’s education, the district will provide opportunities to ensure that students engage in healthful levels of vigorous physical activity to promote and develop the student’s physical, mental, emotional, and social well-being. Besides promoting high levels of personal
achievement and a positive self-image, physical education activities should teach students how to cooperate in the achievement of common goals. The components of the district’s physical education program shall include a variety of kinesthetic activities, including team, individual, and cooperative sports and physical activities, as well as aesthetic movement forms, such as dance, yoga or the martial arts. Students shall be given opportunities for physical activity through a range of before- and/or after-school programs including, but not limited to, intramurals, interscholastic athletics, and physical activity clubs.
The Governing Board will ensure that:
• Physical education staff and teachers shall develop and implement a standards based curriculum that connects and demonstrates the interrelationship between physical activity, good nutrition, and health;
• The District shall enhance the quality of physical education curricula and increase training of physical education teachers/staff through site-based and district-wide staff development;
• Students shall have opportunities to enjoy physical activity through participation in gardening programs;
• An appropriate alternative activity shall be provided for students with a physical disability that may restrict excessive physical exertion;
• Physical education staff shall appropriately limit the amount or type of physical exercise required of students during air pollution episodes, excessively hot weather, or other inclement conditions.
Physical Activity Exemptions
The Superintendent or designee may grant temporary exemption from physical education under any of the following conditions:
• The student is ill or injured and a modified program to meet his/her needs cannot be provided.
School-Based Learning Experiences
The Governing Board recognizes that experiential learning activities that assist students to make connections between diet, health, and environment are critical to formation of student understanding of personal wellness within a larger context of environmental health. Schools play a crucial role in educating students on environmental issues and preparing them to be the stewards of their natural resources. The quality of life in future generations will depend upon our students’ willingness and ability to solve today’s environmental problems and prevent new ones from developing. The Governing Board desires to offer environmental education that fosters attitudes of personal responsibility toward the environment and provides students with the concepts, knowledge and skills needed to contribute meaningfully to decisions involving the environment and its resources. At all grade levels, the Governing Board urges that environmental facts should be taught as they relate to each other, so that students will understand basic ecological principles and appreciate the interrelated nature of living processes, the effect of human activities on ecological relationships, and the interdependence of humanity and nature.
The Governing Board also recognizes that interactive hands-on experiences with the natural world can empower students to actively investigate the ecological principles that sustain our environment. Through the use of experiential learning opportunities in school gardens and cooking classes, students can better understand where their food comes from and how the food choices they and their families make impact the health of the larger social and natural communities within which they live.
The Governing Board will ensure that:
• Staff is encouraged to integrate garden, nutrition education, cooking and eating experiences, and energy and renewable energy experiences into the curriculum for math, science, social studies and language arts at all grade levels;
• Staff is encouraged to establish relationships with local farms so that farmers and farm workers will visit school classrooms and students will visit farms;
• Students are encouraged to recycle, conserve materials, water, and energy, use biodegradable materials when possible, and dispose of wastes in an environmentally sound way at school, in the cafeteria, in the school garden and kitchen classroom, and in all classroom- based activities;
• Food service and teaching staff shall work cooperatively to integrate experiences in cafeterias, instructional gardens, kitchen classrooms, and farm field trips with the formal learning experience of all students;
• School food service staff will work with school departments, and with community partners and the School Wellness Committee, to facilitate student understanding and appreciation of fresh, local, sustainably grown food; for example: We could have local farmers at an assembly;
• Students shall be offered the opportunity to participate in outdoor education programs that make connections between diet, health and the environment, and the interdependence of living things.
Professional Development
The Governing Board recognizes that using the local food system as a context for learning, and embedding nutrition education in a school’s curriculum, generates new content for students to learn. It also requires teachers to learn new content and new strategies for teaching it. For food service personnel, new menus require new ways of purchasing, preparing, and presenting foods. The transition to an educational model that makes food and health central parts of the academic curriculum requires professional development.
The Governing Board will ensure that:
• Regular professional development will be provided to enable the Food Service Staff to become full partners in providing excellent school meals;
• Nutrition Services Staff and district teachers will receive professional development jointly, at least once a year, to facilitate a more coordinated approach to integrating classroom lessons with experiences in gardens, kitchen classrooms, and the cafeteria.
Waste Reduction
The Governing Board will ensure that:
• Meals prepared at school utilize fresh, whole, unpackaged, unprocessed or minimally processed
ingredients, to the maximum extent possible, in order to preserve nutritional content and reduce packaging waste;
• Cafeterias model environmentally sound practices, educate and involve students and staff in reducing waste, composting, recycling and purchasing recycled material whenever possible;
• Post consumer food waste is composted and returned for use in the school garden program;
• Savings from waste reduction policies administered by the school are tracked, and those savings are rebated to the school site for use in helping to sustain quality nutrition and services.
Wellness Policy Requirement 2
Establish nutrition guidelines for all foods available on campus during the school day.
Part of the educational mission of the Camptonville Union Elementary School District is to improve the health of the entire community by teaching students and family’s ways to establish and maintain life-long healthy eating habits. The mission shall be accomplished through nutrition education, physical education, garden-based learning experiences, environmental restoration, core academic content in the classroom, and the food served in schools.
The Governing Board recognizes that the food supplied to the school through state and federal sources is not always of optimal nutritional value and will encourage the CUESD Site Council Wellness Committee to write State and Federal policy makers letters of concern regarding the CUESD ability to follow the USDA guidelines recommendations for fresh, tasty locally grown food that reflects community and cultural diversity due to lack of sufficient funding.
The Governing Board will ensure that:
• All qualified children will become eligible for free and reduced meals;
• A shift from food-based planning to nutrient-based planning (as set forth in USDA guidelines) will be considered when it allows for more flexible food selection;
• The nutritional value of the food served will significantly improve upon USDA Dietary Guidelines through provision of nutritious, fresh, tasty, locally grown food that reflects community and cultural diversity;
• Schools will provide students with sufficient time to eat after sitting down for breakfast and lunch;
• The Nutrition Services Staff will encourage support of local sustainable agriculture by integrating organic foods, as defined by the USDA National Organic Program, into the meals served to students based on availability and acceptability;
• Nutrition Services Staff will coordinate its menus with seasonal production of local farms, and with production in school gardens, so that school meals will reflect seasonality and local agriculture;
• Teachers will encourage “Healthy Snacks” and “Healthy Parties” options, and provide parents with a list of healthy, affordable food choices for snacks and parties;
• The foods used during classes as part of the learning process, for fundraisers that take place at school, for at- school parties, or school-sponsored events, should follow the nutrition guidelines for snacks at school, and should be healthy, safe, and delicious;
• Parents and staff are encouraged to provide party snacks that are consistent with the goals of the policy, and to see to it that such items are served after the lunch hour whenever possible;
• The exposure of children to potentially harmful residues of toxic agricultural chemicals such as pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, waxes, and fungicides will be reduced and/or eliminated by increasing the purchase of foods that are grown sustainably, without the use of toxic chemicals;
• Schools shall offer a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, at least two non-fried vegetables and two fruit choices each day, and five different fruits and five different vegetables over the course of a week;
• Elementary schools shall not have vending machines or school stores accessible by students;
• Vending machines and school stores shall only offer approved items.
Wellness Policy Requirement 3
Assure that guidelines for school meals are not less restrictive than those set at the federal level by the Secretary of Agriculture
• The Nutrition Services Staff will review this policy and ensure that the policies are not less restrictive than those set by the Secretary of Agriculture or state law.
Wellness Policy Requirement 4
Establish a plan for measuring the impact and implementation of the local wellness policy.
The School Board recognizes that the Wellness Committee is responsible for addressing food-related topics of concern to the school community, and making Wellness Policy recommendations to the Board of Education.
In conjunction with adoption of a district Wellness Policy, the district shall establish a standing Wellness Committee, to remain actively engaged with food service in monitoring the implementation of the Wellness Policy and in presenting recommendations to the Governing Board. The following guidelines pertain to the duties and responsibilities of standing Wellness Committees and food service to work cooperatively in evaluating success.
The standing Wellness Committee shall present to the Governing Board an Annual Report each year on the status of meeting the Wellness Policy goals. In so doing the Wellness Committee shall develop an evaluation form that shall:
• Contain recommendations for improving the delivery and cost effectiveness of food services;
• Contain a narrative regarding food purchased from local sources, cost benefits, nutrition benefits etc.
• Ensure that the full complement of students, as specified in the policy, is represented on the School Wellness Committee;
• Solicit student preferences through taste tests, surveys, and interviews, and through student participation on the district Wellness Committee.
• Ensure that in order for the Wellness Committee to be fully informed about food service function, and able to assess the impact and implementation of the local Wellness Policy;
Public Policy
The School Board will work cooperatively with the Wellness Committee and through Children’s Advocates throughout the state to advance goals of wellness by:
• Advocating through letters of support for various Child Nutrition legislation as the Wellness Committee or School Site Council or CUESD School Board suggest.
Wellness Policy Requirement 5
Involve parents, students, and representatives of the school authority, the school board, and school administrators, and the public, in development of the local Wellness Policy.
Establishing a Wellness Committee
The Board shall initiate a process to establish a Wellness Committee as a working group of the district. The Wellness Committee shall draft a Wellness Policy and facilitate its adoption by the Governing Board. The process to form the Wellness Committee shall be openly announced, accessible, equitable, and inclusive. The Wellness Committee shall be a diverse and inclusive working group, representative of the demographics of the school district as a whole.
The following guidelines pertain to the establishment of Wellness Committees.
The recommended membership of the working group shall Follow the guidelines per Site Council by-laws. The Wellness Committee shall meet Quarterly at hours convenient for public participation, and for sufficient time to conduct the group’s business.
Wellness Policy Requirement 6
Mental Health
The Governing Board recognizes the importance of mental health in our school system as well as in our community. We commit to supporting and increasing access to both prevention and treatment services whenever possible. The Governing Board and staff will strive to strengthen collaboration with other academic, local, state, and federal agencies and institution’s involved in mental health prevention, treatment and recovery services. We believe that health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, all of these components are important factors in creating healthy individuals.
· The above policy draft has been adapted from: Model Wellness Policy Guide
Center for Ecoliteracy in collaboration with Slow Food USA and Chez Panisse Foundation 19Available at www.ecoliteracy.org
Resources
The partners in this effort share a common vision of sustainability and concern for our children and their future. We recognize a need to understand our place in nature, and to know more about food, ecosystems, and the cycles of life, in order to create sustainable communities.
Center for Ecoliteracy
The Center’s Rethinking School Lunch program uses a systems approach to address the crisis in childhood obesity, provide nutrition education, and teach ecological knowledge. The Center spent five years researching 10 interrelated dimensions vital to achieving this vision.
www.rethinkingschoollunch.org The Center provides a collection of brief essays entitled Thinking outside the Lunchbox that form the conceptual framework for change. Leading thinkers, educators, and policy makers probe the connections that link childhood obesity and other health issues, the interdependence of human and ecological communities, education for sustainability, and access to safe, fresh, and nourishing food for all people. New essays are added regularly. www.ecoliteracy.org
Resources
Chef Ann Cooper
Chef Ann Cooper offers consulting services for school administrators engaged in reinvention of school lunch programs. She provides nutrition and food choice education to students and works with schools to incorporate curricula that promote and increase the availability of healthy food
and nutrition choices for kids and teens. www.chefann.com
Community Food Security Coalition
The Community Food Security Coalition is a non-profit 501(c)(3), North American organization dedicated to building strong, sustainable, local and regional food systems that ensure access to affordable, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food for all people at all times. We seek to develop self-reliance among all communities in obtaining their food and to create a system of growing, manufacturing, processing, making available, and selling food that is regionally based and grounded in the principles of justice, democracy, and sustainability. CFSC has over 325
member organizations. www.foodsecurity.org
National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity
(NANA) The National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity advocates national policies and programs to promote healthy eating and physical activity to help reduce the illnesses,
disabilities, premature deaths, and costs caused by diet- and inactivity-related diseases such as heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity. www.cspinet.org/nutritionpolicy/nana.html
National Farm to School Program
The National Farm to School Program is a project of the Center for Food and Justice, a division of the Urban and Environmental Policy Institute at Occidental College. The project brings together nine partners from four states to work on promoting farm-to-school programs nationwide. www.farmtoschool.org