Wellness Policy

 WELLNESS                                                                                                 

Safety #513

 

1. PURPOSE

               The purpose of this policy is to assure a school environment that promotes and protects students’ health, well-being, and ability to learn by supporting healthy eating and physical activity and to promote and encourage students to adopt lifelong healthy behaviors.

 

1. GENERAL STATEMENT OF POLICY
2. The board of education recognizes that nutrition education and physical education are essential components of the educational process and that good health fosters student attendance and education.
3. The school environment should promote and protect students’ health, well-being, and ability to learn by encouraging healthy eating and physical activity.
4. St Mary’s School encourages the involvement of students, parents, teachers, food service staff, and other interested persons in implementing, monitoring, and reviewing nutrition and physical activity policies.
5. Children need access to healthy foods and opportunities to be physically active in order to grow, learn, and thrive.
6. All students will have opportunities, support, and encouragement to be physically active on a regular basis.
7. Qualified food service personnel will provide students with access to a variety of affordable, nutritious, and appealing foods that meet the health and nutrition needs of students; try to 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.

 

III.          GUIDELINES

1. Foods and Beverages
2. The goal of St Mary’s School is to have foods and beverages made available on campus consistent with the current USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans according to nutrition and portion size standards.
3. Food service personnel will take every measure to ensure that student access to foods and beverages meet or exceed all federal, state, and local laws and guidelines. The school food service staff will work to:
   • Include more whole grain foods
   • Minimize (or eliminate) deep-fried foods
4. St Mary’s School will adhere to the following specific guidelines for foods and beverages sold or provided separately from the reimbursable school lunch program:

 

                           Food:

The goal of St Mary’s School is to encourage the consumption of nutrient dense foods, such as whole grains, fresh fruits, vegetables and dairy products. At any school function healthy food choice options should be available to students. Preference will be given to foods that do not list sugar as the first ingredient and do not have more than 35% of its calories from fat.

 

                           Foods with a high sugar content (candies, desserts) or with high fat (fried foods, fatty meats, cheeses) content will be available on a limited basis and will be limited in portion size.

 

St Mary’s School will limit celebrations that involve food during the school day.

 

St Mary’s School will encourage healthy choices as classroom snacks.

                          

1. Food service personnel shall adhere to all federal, state, and local food safety and security guidelines.
2. St Mary’s School 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.
3. St Mary’s School will provide students access to handwashing or hand sanitizing before they eat meals or snacks.
4. St Mary’s School will make every effort to provide students with sufficient time to eat after sitting down for school meals and will schedule meal periods at appropriate times during the school day. The minimum eating time will be 25 minutes for lunch. Lunch periods are scheduled as close to the middle of the school day as possible.
5. St Mary’s School will discourage tutoring, club, or organizational meetings or activities during mealtimes, unless students may eat during such activities.

 

School Food Service Program/Personnel

1. St Mary’s School will provide healthy and safe school meal programs that strictly comply with all federal, state, and local statutes and regulations.
2. St Mary’s School shall designate an appropriate person to be responsible for the food service program, whose duties shall include the creation of nutrition guidelines and procedures for the selection of foods and beverages made available on campus to ensure food and beverage choices are consistent with the current USDA Guidelines for Americans.
3. As part of St Mary’s School’s responsibility to operate a food service program, St Mary’s School will provide continuing professional development for all food service personnel.

 

Nutrition Education and Promotion

 

1. St Mary’s School will encourage and support healthy eating by students and engage in nutrition promotion that is:

• offered as part of a comprehensive program designed to provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to promote and protect their health;
• part of health education classes as well as classroom instruction in subjects such as math, science, language arts, social sciences, and where appropriate; and
• enjoyable, developmentally appropriate, culturally relevant, and includes participatory activities, such as contests, promotions, and field trips.

 

2. St Mary’s School follows the Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards and Graduation Requirements that state that “… in grades K-8 health instruction must be given each year or by school-determined grade bands.”

 

3.   St Mary’s School will implement a comprehensive curriculum approach to nutrition in Kindergarten through 6^th grade. All instructional staff will be encouraged to integrate nutritional themes into lesson plans where appropriate.

 

4.    St Mary’s School will encourage the use of nutrition-related posters, cartoons, printed educational materials and multi-media educational materials throughout the school campus to promote and educate students on healthy eating choices.

 

5. St Mary’s School will encourage all students to make age appropriate, healthy selections of foods and beverages whenever given the opportunity to select their own food/beverage.

 

 

Physical Activity

1. St Mary’s School recognizes that students need opportunities for physical activity and to fully embrace regular physical activity as a personal behavior. Toward that end, health education will reinforce the knowledge and self-management skills needed to maintain a healthy lifestyle and reduce sedentary activities such as watching television. St Mary’s School has established a local policy for health and physical education. Students will spend ½ hour per school day outdoors (weather permitting) pursuing physical exercise and 1 hour per school week involvement in a structured physical education program.

 

2. St Mary’s School will meet (or, does meet) these 2004 Guidelines from NASPE:

• Children should accumulate at least 60 minutes, of age appropriate physical activity on all, or most days of the week. St. Mary’s students receive at least 30 minutes each school day (6.75 hr./school day).
• Children should participate in several bouts of physical activity lasting 15 minutes or more each day. St. Mary’s students receive two 15-minute periods of physical activity/school day and receive two longer (30 min.) periods throughout the week.
• Extended periods of inactivity (periods of two hours or more) are discouraged for children, especially during the daytime hours.

AND/ OR

 

8. Supervised unstructured active play, commonly referred to as recess is offered daily for all students. Recess is in addition to a student’s physical education class and not substituted for physical education class. Recess and other physical activity shall not be taken away as a form of discipline unless doing so is directly related to a student’s behavior during recess. Proper equipment and a safe area are designated for recess.
9. School personnel will not use physical activity as a punishment (e.g. running laps, pushups) or withhold physical education class from students as a punishment.
10. Opportunities for physical activity will be incorporated into other subject lessons, where appropriate.
11. Classroom teachers will provide short physical activity breaks between lessons or classes, as appropriate.
12. Students will be given age-appropriate opportunities for physical activity before and after school by making available the playground as appropriate.
13. St Mary’s School will encourage community organizations to provide and promote ways for students to safely walk or bike to and from school.
14. St Mary’s School will encourage parents to support their children’s participation in physical activity.

 

Communicating with Parents

 

1. St Mary’s School recognizes that parents and guardians have a primary and fundamental role in promoting and protecting their children’s health and well-being.

 

2. St Mary’s School will support (encourage) parents’ efforts to provide a healthy diet and daily physical activity for children by providing nutrition educational materials to parents. Materials may be provided in the form of handouts, postings on the school website, articles and information provided in school newsletters and any other appropriate means available for reaching parents.

 

3. St Mary’s School will encourage parents to pack healthy lunches and snacks and refrain from including beverages and foods without nutritional value.

 

4. St Mary’s School will provide information about physical education and other school-based physical activity opportunities and will support parents’ efforts to provide their children with opportunities to be physically active outside of school.

 

 

 

IMPLEMENTATION AND MONITORING

              

1. After approval by the board of education, the wellness policy will be implemented throughout St Mary’s School. The Wellness Policy Committee consisting of the principal, food service representative, two teachers and two parents will implement the policy
2. School food service staff will ensure compliance within the school’s food service areas and will report to the principal.
3. St Mary’s School’s food service program administrator will provide an annual report to the principal setting forth the nutrition guidelines and procedures for selection of all foods made available through the reimbursable school lunch program on campus.
4. The principal will ensure compliance with the wellness policy and will provide an annual report of St Mary’s School’s compliance with the policy to the board of education.

 

 

 

Legal References:       42 U.S.C. § 1751 et seq. (Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act)

42 U.S.C. § 1771 et seq. (Child Nutrition Act of 1966)

P.L. 108-265 (2004) § 204 (Local Wellness Policy)

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 and http://www.actionforhealthykids.org/in-your-state/minnesota/welcome

 

 

Approved August, 2006

Susan Hennen, St. Mary’s Principal

Lucy Kieffer, Food Service Supervisor

Lori Kill, Food Service and Parent

Tricia Rohloff, Teacher

Casey Sayles, Teacher and Parent

Melissa Mattson, LCSC Safety Personnel

 

 

Revised July, 2015

Joe Ferriero, Principal

Darla Loher, Lunch Administrator

 

 

August 2015 Approved by School Board

 

Revisited July, 2016

Joe Ferriero, Principal

Darla Loher, Lunch Administrator

 

Revisited July, 2017

Joe Ferriero, Principal

Darla Loher, Lunch Administrator

 

DOWNLOAD: Full Wellness Policy