St. Peter's Wellness Policy 2016-2017
Wellness Advisory Council
- Food Service Director/Head Cook – Kathy Antony
- School Nurse – Crystal Schmitt
- Parent Representative – Lindsey Anderson
- Staff Member Representative – Lindsey Anderson
- School Principal – Lori Rangaard
[Note: All school districts that receive funding from the federal school lunch program are required by the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 (“the Act”) to have a Wellness Policy that includes nutrition guidelines, goals for nutrition education, and physical activity to promote student wellness. The Act requires the involvement of parents, students, representatives of the school food authority, the school board, school administrators, and the public in the development of the wellness policy. The Act also requires a plan for measuring implementation of the policy and the designation of at least one person charged with operational responsibility for ensuring the school district is in compliance with the policy. The Act provides for technical assistance and information from the Secretary of Agriculture to aid state and local educational agencies and school food authorities in establishing healthy school nutrition environments, reducing childhood obesity, and preventing diet-related chronic diseases.]
Wellness Policy – Page 1
Student Nutrition & Physical Activity
Policy Intent/Rational:
St. Peter’s School promotes healthy schools, by supporting wellness, good nutrition, and regular physical activity as part of the total learning environment. St. Peter’s supports a healthy environment where children learn and participate in positive dietary and lifestyle practices. The school contributes to the basic health status of children by facilitating learning through the support and promotion of good nutrition and physical activity. Improved health optimizes student performance potential and ensures that every child has a better opportunity to reach a higher level of achievement.
A.Provide a comprehensive learning environment for developing and practicing lifelong wellness behaviors.
The entire school environment, not just the classroom, shall be aligned with healthy school goals to positively influence a student’s understanding, beliefs and habits as they relate to good nutrition and regular physical activity. A healthy school environment should not be sacrificed because of a dependence on revenue from high-added fat, high-added sugar, and low nutrient foods to support school programs.
B.Support and promote proper dietary habits contributing to students’ health status and academic performance.
All foods available on school grounds and at school-sponsored activities during the instructional day should meet or exceed the district nutrition standards. Emphasis should be placed on foods that are nutrient dense per calorie. To ensure high quality, nutritious meals, foods should be served with consideration toward variety, appeal, taste, safety, and packaging.
C.Provide more opportunities for students to engage in physical activity.
A quality physical education program is an essential component for all students to learn about and participate in physical activity. Physical activity is to be included in the school’s daily education program for grades K through 6. Physical activity should include regular instructional physical education, as well as co-curricular activities, and recess.
D.The school of St. Peter is committed to improve academic performance for all students.
Educators, administrators, parents, and all school support personnel must consider the critical role student health plays in academic stamina and performance and adapt the school environment to ensure that students’ basic nourishment and activity needs are met. To ensure widespread understanding of the benefits to school environments where nutritious foods are provided and where students have an opportunity for physical activity, an awareness campaign that highlights research demonstrating the positive relationship between good nutrition, physical activity, and capacity of students to develop and learn will be conducted on a regular basis.
Wellness Policy – Page 2
E.Establish and maintain a school-wide Wellness Advisory Council with the purposes of:
- Developing guidance to explicate this policy
- Monitoring the implementation of this policy
- Evaluating policy progress
- Serving as a resource to school personnel, (e.g. providing lists of healthy incentives, snacks, birthdays, etc.)
- Revising policy as necessary
A school-wide Wellness Advisory Council will be established and maintained. The Council will meet a minimum of one time annually with Council membership including, but not limited to:
- Food Service Director/Head Cook
- School Nurse
- A parent representative
- Staff member representative
- School Principal
The Wellness Advisory Council will be responsible for reviewing an Annual Report by September 15 of each year that includes, but may not be limited to, the following information:
- Monthly school menus and meal counts
- Listing any sales of food throughout the school hours including vending machines, school stores, culinary and special education programs, in-school and in-class fundraisers, etc.
- Summary listing of physical activity programs and opportunities for students throughout the school year.
Wellness Policy – Page 3
Student Nutrition
[Note: The Act requires that the school district’s wellness policy provide an assurance that guidelines for reimbursable school meals shall not be less restrictive than regulations and guidance issued by the Secretary of Agriculture pursuant to the Child Nutrition Act (42 U.S.C. 1771 et seq.) and sections 9(f)(1) and 17(a) of the National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1758(f)(1), 1766(a), as those regulations apply to schools.]
The School Breakfast/Lunch Programs:
- The full meal school breakfast and lunch programs will continue to follow the USDA Requirements for Federal School Meals Programs.
- The Food Service Director will work closely with the Wellness Advisory Council.
Cafeteria Environment:
- A cafeteria environment that provides students with a relaxed, enjoyable climate shall be developed.
- The cafeteria environment is a place where students have:
- Adequate space to eat and clean, pleasant surroundings;
- Adequate time to eat meals. (The American School Food Service Association recommends at least 20 minutes for lunch from the time students are seated with their food);
- Convenient access to hand washing or hand sanitizing facilities before meals.
- Recess is before lunch for better eating and digestion.
Fundraising:
- All fund-raising projects are encouraged to follow the school Nutrition Standards.
- All fund-raising projects for sale and consumption within and prior to the instructional day will follow the Nutrition standards when determining the items being sold.
Teacher-to-Student Incentive:
Strong consideration should be given to non-food items as part of any teacher-to-student incentive program. The use of food items as part of a student incentive program is strongly discouraged. Should teachers feel compelled to utilize food items as an incentive, they are required to adhere to the school Nutrition Standards.
Wellness Policy – Page 4
Student Nutrition Education:
St. Peter’s School has a comprehensive curriculum approach to nutrition in Kindergarten through 6th grade. All K-6 instructional staff will be encouraged to integrate nutritional themes into daily lessons when appropriate. The health benefits of good nutrition should be emphasized. These nutritional themes include but are not limited to:
Knowledge of the Food Guide Pyramid
Sources & variety of foods
Diet and disease
Healthy snacks
Healthy diet
Major nutrients
Serving sizes
Identify and limit foods of low nutrient density
Healthy heart choices
Dietary Guidelines for Americans
Understanding calories
Healthy breakfast
Food labels
Multicultural influences
Proper Food safety/Sanitation
The nutrition policy reinforces nutrition education to help students practice these themes in a supportive school environment.
Parent Nutrition Education:
- Nutrition education will be provided to parents.
- Nutrition education may be provided in the form of handouts, articles and information provided in school newsletters, presentations that focus on nutritional value and healthy lifestyles, and through any other appropriate means available for reaching parents.
Staff Nutrition & Physical Activity Education:
With the purposes of:
- Encouraging all school staff to improve their own personal health and wellness
- Improving staff morale
- Creating positive role modeling
- Building the commitment of staff to promote the health of students
- Building the commitment of staff to help improve the school wellness environment.
Wellness education opportunities will be provided to all school staff. These educational opportunities may include, but not be limited to, the distribution of educational and informational materials and the arrangement of presentations and workshops that focus on nutritional value and healthy lifestyles, health assessments, fitness activities, and other appropriate nutrition and physical activity-related topics.
Wellness Policy – Page 5
School Nutrition Standards
Nutrition Standards Intent/Rationale:
St. Peter’s School strongly encourages the sale or distribution of nutrient dense foods for all school functions and activities. Nutrient dense foods are those foods that provide students with calories rich in the nutrient content needed to be healthy. In an effort to support the consumption of nutrient dense foods in the school setting, the school has adopted the following nutrition standards governing the sale of food, beverage, and candy on school grounds. All affected parties are encouraged to study these standards and adhere to the policy using the following Nutrition Standards as minimal guidelines.
Food:
- Encourage the consumption of nutrient dense foods, i.e. WHOLE GRAINS FRESH FRUITS, VEGETABLES, and DAIRY PRODUCTS.
- Any given food item for sale prior to the start of the school day and throughout the instructional day, will have no more than 30% of its total calories derived from fat.
- Any given food item for sale prior to the start of the school day and throughout the instructional day, will have no more than 10% of its total calories derived from saturated fat.
- Nuts and seeds with minimal added fat in processing (no more than 3 grams of added fat per 1.75 ounce or less package size) are exempt from these standards because they are nutrient dense and contain high levels of monounsaturated fat.
- It is recognized that there my be rare special occasions when the school principal may allow a school group to deviate from these Standards, but those special occasions must be recorded and included in the Wellness Advisory Council Annual Report.
Beverages:
- ONLY Milk, Water, and beverages containing 50-100 % fruit juices with no added artificial or natural sweeteners may be sold on school grounds both immediately prior to and throughout the instructional day.
Candy:
- Candy is defined as any processed food item that has:
2.sugar is more than 25% of the item by weight.
- Vending sales will not be permitted on school grounds.
- Non-vending sales of candy will be permitted ONLY at the conclusion of the instructional school day.
Wellness Policy – Page 6
Student Physical Activity
Physical Activity Goal:
The School of St. Peter shall provide physical activity and physical education opportunities that provide students with the knowledge and skills to lead a physically active lifestyle.
[Note: The Act requires that wellness policies include goals for nutrition education, physical activity, and other school-based activities that are designed to promote student wellness in a manner that the school district determines is appropriate.]
St. Peter’s School shall utilize the following Implementation strategies:
1.Physical education classes and physical activity opportunities will be available for all students.
2.Physical activity opportunities shall be offered daily during school (recess).
3.As recommended by the National Association of Sport and Physical Education (NASPE), school leaders of physical activity and physical education shall guide students through a process that will enable them to achieve and maintain a high level of personal fitness through the following:
- Expose youngsters to a wide variety of physical activities.
- Teach physical skills to help maintain a lifetime of health and fitness
- Encourage self-monitoring so youngsters can see how active they are and set their own goals
- Individualize intensity of activities
- Focus feedback on the process of doing your best rather than on the product
- Be active role models
4.Introduce developmentally appropriate components of a health-related fitness assessment, (e.g. Fitness Gram, Physical Best or President’s Council) to the students at an early age to prepare them for future assessments.
5.Begin fitness or activity logging in elementary school. Assist students to interpret their personal attainments and compare them to national physical activity recommendations.
The 2004 Guidelines from NASPE recommend:
- Children should accumulate at least 60 minutes, and up to several hours, of age appropriate physical activity on all, or most days of the week.
- Children should participate in several bouts of physical activity lasting 15 minutes or more each day.
- Children should participate each day in a variety of age-appropriate physical activities designed to achieve optimal health, wellness, fitness and performance benefits
- Extended periods (periods of two hours or more) of inactivity are discouraged for children, especially during the daytime hours.
6.Physical education classes shall be sequential, building from year to year, and content will include movement, personal fitness, and personal and social responsibility. Students should be able to demonstrate competency through application of knowledge, skill, and practice. (NASPE recommendations for physical education are 150 minutes per week for elementary students.)
The school district will post this wellness policy on its website, to the extent it maintains a website.
Adopted: June, 2006
Effective: School Year 2006-2007
Reviewed/updated: December 9, 2016
Legal References: Minn. Stat. § 121A.215 (Local School District Wellness Policy)
42 U.S.C. § 1751 et seq. (Healthy and Hunger-Free Kids Act)
42 U.S.C. § 1758b (Local School Wellness Policy)
42 U.S.C. § 1771 et seq. (Child Nutrition Act of 1966)
7 U.S.C. § 5341 (Establishment of Dietary Guidelines)
7 C.F.R. § 210.10 (School Lunch Program Regulations)
7 C.F.R. § 220.8 (School Breakfast Program Regulations)
Local Resources: Minnesota Department of Education, www.education.state.mn.us
Minnesota Department of Health, www.health.state.mn.us
County Health Departments
Action for Healthy Kids Minnesota, www.actionforhealthykids.org
United States Department of Agriculture,
