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Schools play a critical role in the health of children and adolescents. Schools can educate students about healthy eating and being active, offer healthy food such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables, adopt policies that prohibit unhealthy snacks, and provide opportunities for daily physical activity. Here are the facts:
The Obesity Epidemic and Massachusetts Students 
, a report developed by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, provides a snapshot of the obesity epidemic as of 2009. Data in the report comes from two DPH sources: The 2009 Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior Survey and the Massachusetts Youth Health Survey. The Department of Public Health has created a comprehensive guidance document
Healthy Students, Healthy Schools
to help school administrators, teachers, school nutrition service staff, school nurses, parents, students, booster clubs, PTAs/PTOs and others implement the Massachusetts School Nutrition Standards for Competitive Foods and Beverages. The guidance document includes links to resources and features numerous examples from schools across Massachusetts that have already successfully created healthier environments for their students. The guidance document also features a customizable Sample Letter to Parents that explains what these new policies mean and why they’re being implemented, along with an "At A Glance" guide that sets out the new nutrition standards in an easy-to-read format. These documents are also available in Spanish and Portuguese for school administrators to communicate with parents in those languages.
Learn more about making healthy changes in your school using the resources listed below. - Action for Healthy Kids is the only non-profit organization formed specifically to address the epidemic of overweight, undernourished and sedentary youth by focusing on changes at school. The site includes many tools such as guides for healthy school fundraising and parties and recruiting parent advocates. Here's the Massachusetts Action for Healthy Kids Team .
- A La Carte Food & Beverage Standards to Promote a Healthier School Environment: A guide developed by Massachusetts Action for Healthy Kids to improve the a la carte food and beverage choices at your school.
- Alliance for a Healthier Generation supports more than 7,800 schools across the U.S. in their efforts to create environments where physical activity and healthy eating are accessible and encouraged. This site has great tools and tips that will help make our children's generation a healthier generation!
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Comprehensive Growth Screening Program for Schools
: The goal of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health's Comprehensive Growth Screening Program is to improve the health and well-being of school-age children so that they are healthy and ready to learn. Consistent with this goal, schools are required by law to provide health screenings and are encouraged to follow up with the results of these screenings with families and primary health care providers.
- EatRight is the American Dietetic Association online resource for making informed food choices and developing sound eating habits. Contact the Massachusetts Dietetic Association Speakers Bureau for communities and organizations requesting the expertise of a registered dietician.
- Eat Well and Keep Moving is a multi-faceted curriculum developed by the Harvard School of Public Health. It is designed to use existing school resources to reinforce important messages about nutrition and physical activity to elementary school students through a variety of learning environments - from the classroom, cafeteria, and gymnasium to the school hallways, the home, and even community centers.
- Farm to School: Learn about a program to provide schools with fresh, locally grown foods that benefits school kids and farmers alike. See what schools are doing in Massachusetts.
- Fitnessgram is a fitness assessment and reporting program for youth first developed in 1982 by The Cooper Institute. The assessment includes a variety of health-related physical fitness tests that assess aerobic capacity; muscular strength, muscular endurance, and flexibility; and body composition. Scores from these assessments are compared to Healthy Fitness Zone® standards to determine students' overall physical fitness and suggest areas for improvement when appropriate.
- FoodPlay is a performance company touring the nation's schools using the power of live theater to turn kids on to healthy eating and being more active.
- Let's Move is the Presidential Initiative creating a new interagency Childhood Obesity Task Force; visit their Healthier Schools page to learn more about what schools are doing across the country and to access a variety of tools, guides, lesson plans and other resources.
- National School Boards Association provides local school boards with the information and tools they need to support school environments that address childhood obesity by fostering healthy eating and physical activity.
- Planet Health is an interdisciplinary curriculum focused on improving the health and well-being of 6th - 8th grade students while building and reinforcing skills in language, arts, math, science, social studies and physical education.
- Promoting Healthy Youth, Schools and Communities: A Guide to Community-School Health Councils, written by the American Cancer Society, will assist school districts in developing new school health councils, strengthening new school health councils, and maintaining them as effective entities that can support and guide school health practices, programs and policies.
- Resource Guide for Pediatric Overweight Treatment Services in Massachusetts lists pediatric overweight treatment services available in Massachusetts and is recommended for health care providers and parents.
- Safe Routes to Schools promotes healthy alternatives for children and parents in their travel to and from school; and to educate students, parents and community members on the value of walking and bicycling for travel to and from school. See what's happening in Massachusetts.
- <strong>School Employee Wellness</strong> provides information, practical tools and resources for school employee wellness programs to help schools, school districts and states develop and support the implementation of school employee wellness programs that promote employee health, improve workforce productivity and reduce the costs of employee absenteeism and healthcare.
School Health Index is a self-assessment and planning guide, developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that schools can use to assess and improve its physical activity, healthy eating, tobacco-use prevention, and safety policies and programs. - Team Nutrition is an initiative of the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, providing information on nutrition education, healthy eating and physical activity with support and materials for parents, teachers and foodservice professionals.
- WeCan! Ways to Enhance Children's Activity & Nutrition is a national program designed for families and communities to help children maintain a healthy weight. The program focuses on three important behaviors: improved food choices, increased physical activity and reduced screen time. It has numerous resources for parents and children as well as information on how communities can become WeCan! Partners.
- Wellness Solutions for Massachusetts is an online resource for school community members to establish, implement and share effective wellness policies for their schools provided by the John C. Stalker Institute of Food & Nutrition at Framingham State College in collaboration with Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Nutrition Health and Safety Unit, Massachusetts Action for Healthy Kids and USDA, Team Nutrition. Topics range from healthy school foods and promoting physical activity to issues like non-food fundraisers and handling food allergies in the classroom.
This is not a comprehensive list and should not be interpreted as an endorsement by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health of any particular product or website. |
