Richland R-1 School August 2017

Richland R-1 District Wellness Program

The primary goals of Richland R-1 School District wellness program is to promote student health, reduce student overweight/obesity, facilitate student learning of lifelong healthy habits and increase student achievement. The correlation between nutrition, physical fitness and learning is well documented. For example, student participation in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) School Breakfast Program is associated with higher grades and standardized test scores, lower absenteeism and better performance on cognitive tasks. Conversely, less-than-adequate consumption of specific foods including fruits, vegetables and dairy products, is associated with lower grades among students. Healthy lifestyle patterns are essential for students to achieve their full academic potential, full physical and mental growth, and lifelong health and well-being. Healthy diet and physical activity are demonstrably linked to reduced risk for mortality and development of many chronic diseases as adults. In addition, students who are physically active through active transport to and from school, recess, physical activity breaks, high-quality physical education and extracurricular activities – do better academically. Richland R-1 has the responsibility to help students and staff establish and maintain lifelong, healthy lifestyle patterns. The intent of this policy is to outline the district's ongoing commitment in support of wellness in the areas of nutrition, physical activity, and other school-based activities that promote health and wellness. The following procedures will guide the implementation of the district wellness program.

Student Health & Wellness Committee

The school district highly values the health and wellbeing of every student and will plan and implement activities and policies that support personal efforts by staff to maintain a healthy lifestyle. The district shall designate wellness coordinators, and together will establish and maintain a student health and wellness committee. The committee shall develop, promote, and oversee a multifaceted plan to promote student health and wellness. The general public and the school community (including parents, students, and representatives of the school food authority, teachers of physical education, school health professionals, the school board, and school administrators) are encouraged to participate in the wellness policy process. The plan will outline ways to encourage healthy eating, physical activity, and other elements of a healthy lifestyle among student.

Nutrition

Nutrition Guidelines

The district designates the following nutrition guidelines for foods and beverages served in schools during the school day:

  1. All school meals will comply with USDA regulations and state policies. The school breakfast and lunch program will meet the daily nutritional guidelines in accordance with the Federal Child Nutrition Program.
  2. All A-La-Carte items, food and beverages items, after school tutoring, and foods used for incentives served will meet the federal regulations for the national school lunch program.
  3. Nutrient dense foods such as whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, and dairy products will be served daily, and consumption of such food will be encouraged.
  4. Foods designated to be of minimal nutritional value will not be served. Any food and beverage, sold to students at school during the school day(including vended foods), will be in compliance with USDA regulations prohibiting the sale of foods of minimal nutritional value where school meals are served or eaten during the meal period.

Nutrition Promotion

Nutrition promotion and education positively influence lifelong eating behaviors by using evidence-based techniques and nutrition messages, and by creating food environments that encourage healthy nutrition choices and encourage participation in school meal programs. Students and staff will receive consistent nutrition messages throughout schools, classrooms, gymnasiums, and cafeterias. Nutrition promotion also includes marketing and advertising nutritious foods and beverages to students and is most effective when implemented consistently through a comprehensive and multi-channel approach by school staff, teachers, parents, students and the community.

The District will promote healthy food and beverage choices for all students throughout the school campus, as well as encourage participation in school meal programs. This promotion will occur through at least:

  1. Implementing at least ten or more evidence-based healthy food promotion techniques through the school meal programs usingSmarter Lunchroom techniques.
  2. Ensuring 100% of foods and beverages promoted to students meet the USDA Smart Snacks in School nutrition standards.

Nutrition Education

The District will teach, model, encourage and support healthy eating by all students. The district’s nutrition education goal is to integrate sequential nutrition education with the comprehensive health education program and, to the extent possible, the core curriculum taught at every grade level in order to provide students with the necessary knowledge and skills to make healthy nutrition decisions. In addition, the district will promote healthy eating and nutrition. In order to achieve the nutrition education goal the schools will provide nutrition education and engage in nutrition promotion that:

  1. Is designed to provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to promote and protect their health.
  2. Is part of not only health education classes, but also integrated into other classroom instruction through subjects such as math, science, language arts, social sciences and elective subjects.
  3. Includes enjoyable, developmentally-appropriate, culturally-relevant and participatory activities, such as cooking demonstrations or lessons, promotions, taste-testing, farm visits and school gardens.
  4. Promotes fruits, vegetables, whole-grain products, low-fat and fat-free dairy products and healthy food preparation methods.
  5. Emphasizes caloric balance between food intake and energy expenditure (promotes physical activity/exercise).
  6. Links with school meal programs, cafeteria nutrition promotion activities, school gardens, Farm to School programs, other school foods and nutrition-related community services.
  7. Teaches media literacy with an emphasis on food and beverage marketing.
  8. Includes nutrition education training for teachers and other staff.
  9. Provide students at all grade levels with adequate nutritional knowledge including, but not limited to:

The benefits of healthy eating

Essential nutrients

Nutritional deficiencies

Safe food preparation, handling and storage

Principles of healthy weight management

Relationship between healthy eating and personal health and disease prevention

Eating a variety of foods every day

Balancing food intake and physical activity

Risks of unhealthy weight control practices

Accepting body size differences

Food safety

Importance of water consumption

10. Provide students with nutrition-related skills that minimally include the ability to:

Plan healthy meals and snacks

Understand the use of food labels

Apply the principles of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) and MyPyramid.

Reading and using FDA's nutrition fact labels

Critically evaluate nutrition information, misinformation and commercial food advertising

Assess personal eating habits, nutrition goal-setting and achievement

11. Encourage district staff to cooperate with local agencies and community groups to provide students with opportunities for volunteer work related to nutrition, such as in food banks, soup kitchens or after-school programs.

12. Ensure that school counselors and school health services staff consistently promote healthy eating to students and other staff and that these professionals are prepared to recognize conditions such as unhealthy weight, eating disorders and other nutrition-related health problems among students.

12. Coordinate the food service program with nutrition instruction. Food service staff will work closely with those responsible for other components of the school health program to achieve common goals.

Staff Qualifications and Professional Development

All school nutrition program directors, managers and staff will meet or exceed hiring and annual continuing education/training requirements in theUSDA professional standards for child nutrition professionals. These school nutrition personnel will refer toUSDA’s Professional Standards for School Nutrition Standards website to search for training that meets their learning needs.

School Meals and Meal Times

Our school district is committed to serving healthy meals to children, with plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free and low-fat milk; that are moderate in sodium, low in saturated fat, and have zero grams trans-fat per serving (nutrition label or manufacturer’s specification); and to meeting the nutrition needs of school children within their calorie requirements. The school meal programs aim to improve the diet and health of school children, help mitigate childhood obesity, model healthy eating to support the development of lifelong healthy eating patterns and support healthy choices while accommodating cultural food preferences and special dietary needs.

The following are guidelines for meals served through the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs. The district will implement at least ten or more evidence-based healthy food promotion techniques through the school meal programs usingSmarter Lunchroom techniques. In addition, students are not permitted to leave school campus during the school day to purchase food or beverages.

  1. Meal times will provide students with at least 10 minutes to eat after sitting down for breakfast and at least 15 minutes after sitting down for lunch.
  2. Activities such as tutoring or meetings will not be held during mealtimes unless students may eat during such activities.
  3. Students are served lunch at a reasonable and appropriate time of day.
  4. Drinking water will be available to students during meals.
  5. Lunch will follow the recess period to better support learning and healthy eating.
  6. Participation in Federal child nutrition programs will be promoted among students and families to help ensure that families know what programs are available in their children’s school.
  7. Meet, at a minimum, nutrition requirements established by local, state, and federal statutes and regulations
  8. Offer a variety of fruits and vegetables
  9. Daily fruit options are displayed in a location in the line of sight and reach of students.
  10. All staff members, especially those serving, have been trained to politely prompt students to select and consume the daily vegetable options with their meal.
  11. Students will have access to handwashing facilities before they eat meals or snacks.
  12. The district will take responsible steps to accommodate the tooth-brushing regimens of students.
  13. Students will be allowed to converse during meals.
  14. The cafeteria will be clean, orderly, and inviting.
  15. The cafeteria will be branded and decorated in a way that reflects the student body.
  16. Adequate seating and supervision will be provided during meal times.
  17. Unflavored milk will be placed in front of other beverage choices.
  18. Students will be provided with self-serve spices and seasonings to add flavor to vegetables.
  19. Student artwork is displayed in the service and/or dining areas.
  20. Use creative names for fruits and vegetables and main dishes.
  21. Display posters promoting healthy, nutritious foods and activities in the cafeterias.

Breakfast

To ensure that all children have breakfast, either at home or at school, in order to meet their nutritional needs and enhance their ability to learn, the district will:

  1. To the extent possible, operate the School Breakfast Program.
  2. To the extent possible, arrange bus schedules and utilize methods to serve school breakfasts that encourage participation.
  3. Notify parents and students of the availability of the School Breakfast Program.
  4. Encourage parents to provide a healthy breakfast for their children through newsletter articles, take-home materials, or other means.

Free and Reduced-Priced Meals

The district 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 meals.

Water

To promote hydration, free, safe, unflavored drinking water will be available to all students throughout the school day and throughout every school campus. The District will make drinking water available where school meals are served during meal times.

Sharing of Foods and Beverages

The district will 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.

Celebrations and Rewards

All foods offered on the school campus will meet or exceed the USDA Smart Snacks in School nutrition standards including through:

  1. Celebrations and parties. The district will provide a list of healthy party ideas to parents and teachers, including non-food celebration ideas. Healthy party ideas are available from theAlliance for a Healthier Generation and from theUSDA.
  2. Classroom snacks brought by parents. The District will provide to parents alist of foods and beverages that meet Smart Snacks nutrition standards.
  3. Rewards and incentives. The District will provide teachers and other relevant school staff alist of alternative ways to reward children. Foods and beverages will not be used as a reward, or withheld as punishment for any reason, such as for performance or behavior.

The district will not use foods or beverages, especially those that do not meet the nutrition standards for foods and beverages sold individually (above), as rewards for academic performance or good behavior, and will not withhold food or beverages (including food served through school meals) as a punishment.

Competitive Foods and Beverages

The District is committed to ensuring that all foods and beverages available to students on the school campus* during the school day* support healthy eating. The foods and beverages sold and served outside of the school meal programs (e.g., “competitive” foods and beverages) will meet the USDA Smart Snacks in School nutrition standards, at a minimum. Smart Snacks aim to improve student health and well-being, increase consumption of healthful foods during the school day and create an environment that reinforces the development of healthy eating habits. All competitive foods, including vended foods and beverages will be sold in compliance with USDA regulations prohibiting the sale of foods of minimal nutritional value where school meals are served or eaten during the meal period. To support healthy food choices and improve student health and well-being, all foods and beverages outside the reimbursable school meal programs that are sold to students on the school campus during the school day will meet or exceed the USDA Smart Snacks nutrition standards These standards will apply in all locations and through all services where foods and beverages are sold, which may include, but are not limited to, à la carte options in cafeterias, vending machines, school stores and snack or food carts.

*The school day is considered the midnight before until 30 minutes after the regular scheduled school day

Fundraising

Foods and beverages that meet or exceed the USDA Smart Snacks in Schools nutrition standards may be sold through fundraisers on the school campus* during the school day*. The District will make available to parents and teachers a list of healthy fundraising ideas .

*The school day is considered the midnight before until 30 minutes after the regular scheduled school day

Physical Activity

Children and adolescents should participate in at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day. The district’s physical activity goal is to assist students in learning to value and enjoy physical activity as an ongoing part of a healthy lifestyle by ensuring that every student has the opportunity to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to perform a variety of physical activities, maintain physical fitness and regularly participate in physical activity.

Physical Education

The District will provide students with physical education, using an age-appropriate, sequential physical education curriculum consistent with national and state standards for physical education. The physical education curriculum will promote the benefits of a physically active lifestyle and will help students develop skills to engage in lifelong healthy habits, as well as incorporate essential health education concepts. The curriculum will support the essential components of physical education.

The program will:

  1. Provide for at least 56 minutes of physical education for students in the elementary grades during the school week; at least 225 minutes during each school week for students in middle school; and at least one unit for students in high school.
  2. Emphasize knowledge and skills for a lifetime of regular physical activity.
  3. Devote at least 50 percent of physical education class time to actual physical activity in each week, with as much time as possible spent in vigorous physical activity.
  4. Meet the needs of all students, especially those who are not athletically gifted or who have special needs.
  5. Provide a variety of activity choices, feature cooperative as well as competitive activities, and account for gender and cultural differences in students’ interests.
  6. Prohibit exemptions form physical education courses on the basis of participation in an athletic team, community recreation program, marching band or other school or community activity.
  7. Provide equal opportunity to participate in physical education classes. The District will make appropriate accommodations to allow for equitable participation for all students and will adapt physical education classes and equipment as necessary.

Essential Physical Activity Topics in Health Education