Health & Wellness Policy

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The National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity encourages schools, school districts, and others to use, distribute, and adapt a Model School Wellness Policies.

 

  I.  Nutritional Quality of Foods Sold and Served on Campus

 

 II.  Nutrition and Physical Activity Promotion and Food Marketing

 

III.  Physical Activity Opportunities and Physical Educational

 

 IV.  Monitoring and Policy Review

 

Saint Peter Claver's Wellness Policy on Physical Activity and Nutrition

 

  • Children need access to healthful foods and opportunities to be physically active in order to grow, learn, and thrive;

  • Good health fosters student attendance and education;

  • Obesity rates have doubled in children and tripled in adolescents over the last two decades, and physical inactivity and excessive calorie intake are the predominant causes of obesity; 

  • Heart disease, cancer, and major risk factors for those diseases, including unhealthy eating habits, physical inactivity, and obesity, often are established in childhood;

  • Only 2% of children (2 – 19 years) eat a healthy diet consistent with the five main recommendations from the Food Guide Pyramid;

  • School and community participation is essential to the development and implementation of successful school wellness policies;

 

Therefore, it is the policy at Saint Peter Claver Catholic School that:

  • The school will engage students, parents, teachers, food service professionals and health professionals in developing and implementing, nutrition and physical activity policies.

  • All students in grades K-8 will have opportunities, support, and encouragement to be physically active on a regular basis.

  • Foods sold or served at school will meet the nutrition recommendations of the U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

  • Qualified child nutrition professionals will provide students with access to a variety of affordable, nutritious, and appealing foods that meet the health and nutrition needs of students; will accommodate the religious, ethnic, and cultural diversity of the student body in meal planning; and will provide clean, safe, and pleasant settings and adequate time for students to eat.

  • To the maximum extent practicable, our school will participate in available federal school meal programs (National School Lunch Program, including after school snacks)

  • Schools will provide nutrition education and physical education to foster lifelong habits of healthy eating and physical activity, and will establish linkages between health education and school meal programs, and with related community services.

 

TO ACHIEVE THESE POLICY GOALS:

 

I.  Nutritional Quality of Foods Served in School

 

School Meals

 

Meals served through the National School Lunch Programs will:

  • be appealing and attractive to children;

  • be served in clean and pleasant settings;

  • meet, at a minimum, nutrition requirements established by local, state, and federal statutes and regulations;

  • offer a variety of fruits and vegetables;2

  • serve only low-fat (1%) and fat-free milk3 and nutritionally-equivalent non-dairy alternatives (to be defined by USDA); and

  • ensure that half of the served grains are whole grand. 3,4

 

Schools should engage students and parents, through taste-tests of new entrees and surveys, in selecting foods sold through the school meal programs in order to identify new, healthful, and appealing food choices. In addition, schools should share information about the nutritional content of meals with parents and students. Such information could be made available on menus, a website, on cafeteria menu boards, placards, or other point-of-purchase materials.

 

Free and Reduced Price Meals

 

Schools will make every effort to eliminate any social stigma attached to, and prevent the overt identification of, students who are eligible for free and reduced-price school meals5. Toward this end, the school will provide meals at no charge to all children, regardless of income; promote the availability of school meals to all students.

 

Meal Time and Scheduling, Schools 

  • will provide students with at least 15 minutes after sitting down for lunch;

  • should schedule meal periods at appropriate times, e.g., lunch should be scheduled between 11 a.m. And 1 p.m.;

  • will provide students address to hand washing or hand sanitizing before they eat meals or snacks.

  

Qualification of Food Service Personal

 

Qualified nutrition professionals will administer the school meal programs. As part of the school's responsibility to operate a food service program, we will provided continuing professional development for all nutrition professionals in schools. Staff development programs should include appropriate certification and/or training programs for, school nutrition managers, and cafeteria workers, according to their levels of responsibility.

 

Sharing of Food and Beverages

 

School should discourage students from sharing their foods or beverages with one another during meal or snack times, given concerns about allergies and other restrictions on some children's diets.

 

Elementary and Middle Schools

The school food service program will approve and provide all food and beverage sales to students in elementary schools. If available, foods and beverages sold individually should be limited to low-fat and non-fat milk, fruits, and non-fried vegetables.

 

Snacks

Snacks served in after-school care or enrichment programs will make a positive contribution to children's diets and health, with an emphasis on serving fruits and vegetables as the primary snacks and milk as the primary beverage. If eligible, schools that provide snacks through after-school programs will pursue receiving reimbursements through the National School Lunch Program.

 

II.  Nutrition and Physical Activity Promotion and Food Marketing

 

Nutrition Education and Promotion. Saint Peter Claver Catholic School aims to teach, encourage, and support healthy eating by students. Schools should provide nutrition education and engage in nutrition promotion that;

  • is offered at each grade level as part of a sequential, comprehensive, standards-based program designed to provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to promote and protect their health;

  • includes enjoyable, developmentally-appropriate, culturally-relevant, participatory activities, such as contest, promotions, taste testing, farm visits

  • promotes fruits, vegetables, whole grain products, low-fat and fat-free dairy products, healthy food preparation methods, and health-enhancing nutrition practices;

  • emphasizes caloric balance between food intake and energy expenditure (physical activity/exercise);

  • links with school meal programs, other school foods, and nutrition-related community services;

  • includes training for teachers and other staff.

 

Integrating Physical Activity into the Classroom Setting

 

For students to receive the nationally-recommended amount of daily physical activity (i.e., at least 60 minutes per day) and for students to fully embrace regular physical activity as a personal behavior, students need opportunities for physical activity beyond physical education class. Toward that end:

  • classroom health education will complement physical education by reinforcing the knowledge and self-management skills needed to maintain a physically-active lifestyle and to reduce time spent on sedentary activities, such as watching television;

  • opportunities for physical activity will be incorporated into other subject lessons; and

  • classroom teachers will provide short physical activity breaks between lessons or classes, as appropriate.

 

Communication with Parents

 

The school will provide information about physical education and other school-based physical activity opportunities before, during, and after the school day; and support parents' efforts to provide their children with opportunities to be physically active outside of school. Such supports will include sharing information about physical activity and physical education through a website, newsletter, or other take-home materials, special events, or physical education homework.

 

Food Marketing in Schools

 

School-based marketing will be consistent with nutrition education and health promotion. As such, schools will limit food and beverage marketing to the promotion of foods and beverages that meet the nutrition standards for meals or for foods and beverages sold individually. The promotion of healthy foods, including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy products is encouraged.

 

III.  Physical Activity Opportunities and Physical Education 

 

Daily Physical Education (PE) K- 8

 

All students in grades K-8, including students with disabilities, and special health-care needs, will receive 2 x weekly physical education for the entire school year. All physical education will be taught by a certified physical education teacher. Student involvement in other activities involving physical activity (e.g., interscholastic or intramural sports) will not be substituted for meeting the physical education requirement. Students will spend at least 50 percent of physical education class time participating in moderate to vigorous physical activity.

 

Daily Recess

 

All elementary school students will have at least 15 minutes a day of supervised recess, preferably outdoors, during which schools should encourage moderate to vigorous physical activity verbally and through the provision of space and equipment.

 

Schools should discourage extended periods (i.e., periods of two or more hours) of inactivity. When activities, such as mandatory school-wide testing, make it necessary for students to remain indoors for long periods of time, schools should give students periodic breaks during which they are encouraged to stand and be moderately active.

 

Activity Opportunities Before and After School

 

Our school will offer extracurricular physical activity programs, such as physical activity clubs or intramural programs. Our middle schools will offer interscholastic sports programs. Our school will offer activities that meet the needs, interests, and abilities of the students.

 

After-school child care and enrichment programs will provide and encourage-verbally and through the provision of space, equipment, and activities-daily periods of moderate to vigorous physical activity for all participants.

 

Physical Activity and Punishment

 

Teachers will not use physical activity (e.g., running laps, pushups) or withhold opportunities for physical activity (e.g., recess, physical education) as punishment.

 

Safe Routes to School

 

The school district will assess and, if necessary and to the extent possible, make needed improvements to make it safer and easier for students to walk and bike to school. When appropriate, the district will work together with local public works, public safety, and/or police departments in those efforts. The school district will explore the availability of federal “safe routes to school” funds, administered by the state department of transportation, to fiance such improvements. The school district will encourage students to use public transportation when available and appropriate for travel to school, and will work with the local transit agency to provide transit passes for students.

 

Use of School Facilities Outside of School Hours

 

School spaces and facilities should be available to students and staff before, during, and after the school day, on weekends, and during school vacations. School policies concerning safety will apply at all times.

 

IV.  Monitoring and Policy Review Monitoring

 

The principal will ensure compliance with established school-wide nutrition and physical activity wellness policies. In each school, the principal or physical education/health teacher will ensure compliance with the policies in his/her school.

 

School food service staff, will ensure compliance with nutrition policies within school food service areas and will report on this matter to the principal. In addition, the school will report on the most recent USDA School meals Initiative (SMI) review findings and any resulting changes. If the school has not received a SMI review from the state agency within the past five years, the school will request from the state agency that a SMI review be scheduled as soon as possible.