To implement the Wellness Policy, the following district specific goals have been established:
Goal 1 – Nutrition Education and Promotion: Schools will provide nutrition education and engage in nutrition promotion that help students develop lifelong healthy eating behaviors. The goal(s) for addressing nutrition education and nutrition promotion include the following:
- Provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to promote and protect their health
- Include enjoyable, developmentally-appropriate, culturally-relevant, and participatory activities, such as cooking demonstrations or lessons, promotions, taste-testing, farm visits, and school gardens
- Promote fruits, vegetables, whole-grain products, low-fat and fat-free dairy products, and healthy foods
- Emphasize caloric balance between food intake and energy expenditure (promotes physical activity/exercise)
- Link with school meal programs, cafeteria nutrition promotion activities, school gardens, Farm to School programs, other school foods, and nutrition-related community services
- Implement evidence-based healthy food promotion techniques through the school meal programs using Smarter Lunchroom techniques
Goal 2 – Physical Activity: Schools will provide students and staff with age and grade appropriate opportunities to engage in physical activity that meet federal and state guidelines, including the Iowa Healthy Kids Act. The goal(s) for addressing physical activity include the following:
- Develop a comprehensive, school-based physical activity program (CSPAP), that includes the following components:
- Physical education, recess
- Classroom-based physical activity
- Walk to school
- Out of school time activities
- Promote the benefits of a physically active lifestyle and help students develop skills to engage in lifelong healthy habits
- Engage students in moderate to vigorous activity during at least 50 percent of physical education class time
- Encourage classroom teachers to provide short physical activity breaks (3-5 minutes), as appropriate
- Encourage teachers to incorporate movement and kinesthetic learning approaches into core subject instructions when possible
- Offer classroom health education that complements physical education by reinforcing the knowledge and self-management skills needed to maintain a physically active lifestyle
- Ensure physical activity is not used for or withheld as a punishment
- Afford elementary students with recess according to the following:
- At least 20 minutes a day
- Outdoors as weather and time permits.
- Encourages moderate to vigorous physical activity.
- Scheduled to avoid extended periods of inactivity (i.e., periods of two or more hours).
Goal 3 – Other School-Based Activities that Promote Student Wellness: Schools will support student, staff, and parents’ efforts to maintain a healthy lifestyle, as appropriate. The goal(s) for addressing other school-based activities that promote student wellness include the following:
- Provide parents a list of foods and beverages that meet nutrition standards for classroom snacks and celebrations.
- Provide school staff a list of alternative ways to reward children. Foods and beverages will not be used as a reward, or withheld as punishment.
- Develop a plan to promote staff health and wellness.
- Engage students and parents, through taste-tests of new school meal items and surveys to identify new, healthful, and appealing food choices.
- Share information about the nutritional content of meals with parents and students.
- Support the consumption of breakfast at school by implementing alternative breakfast options to the extent possible (e.g., grab n’ go, breakfast in the classroom, breakfast after 1st period, etc.).
- Permit students to bring and carry water bottles filled with water throughout the day.
- Make drinking water available where school meals are served during mealtimes.
- Encourage fundraising efforts held outside school hours to sell only non-food items, promote physical activity, or include foods and beverages that meet or exceed the Smart Snacks nutrition standards.
- Strive to provide students with at least 10 minutes to eat after sitting down for breakfast and 20 minutes after sitting down for lunch.
Public Involvement: There is a process for permitting parents, students, representatives of the school food authority, teachers of physical education, school health professionals, the school board, administrators and the public to participate in the development, implementation, and periodic review and update of the policy.
- The district has a local wellness policy committee to advise the district on the development, implementation, and improvement of the school wellness policy.
- The superintendent or superintendent’s designee invites suggestions or comments concerning the development, implementation, and improvement of the school wellness policy. As such, interested persons are encouraged to contact the superintendent or superintendent’s designee.
Approved: 1/9/2018 Reviewed: 5/10/2021 Revised: