Students in St. Louis Public Schools may have noticed a few things are different about their school from last year. On the other hand, the changes may be subtle enough to become far-reaching and unnoticeable at the same time.
A new health and wellness policy implemented this year has goals to bring more physical activity for students, healthier food choices and a healthy collaboration between schools, parents and the community to each do its share to support healthy living.
In the elementary schools, for example, students get 150 minutes of physical activity each week. Here is a switch: 20 minutes of recess before lunch instead of after lunch. No more rushing through lunch to go kick it with your buddies on the playground.
“Instead, students come in from recess ready to eat so they eat more food and get more nutrients,” said Kristen Peterson, outreach associate of the Health and Wellness Policy committee. “Because they have eaten well they stay focused throughout the afternoon.”
That “eating well” part includes more selections of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lower fat main courses to be incorporated over two years from Chartwells, SLPS’ new food service vendor. Chartwells and its “Eat, Learn, Live” mantra is in more than 600 school districts, feeding 2.5 million growing bodies and hungry minds daily with healthier eats and treats that meet nutrition guidelines of the National School Lunch and Breakfast Program. It also provides nutrition education and promotes physical activity.
Each school will develop its own health advisory committee consisting of parents, staff and community members to assist the district in implementing the wellness policy.
Parents also factor into the health and wellness equation when children are not in school. Parents will be offered tips about encouraging physical activity outside of school, talking to their children about what they ate at school and ways to prepare healthier meals at home.
Starting next year, all students will bring home a fitness report card twice each year charting their progress from a physical fitness test by school P.E. teachers. The assessments are mandated by the Missouri Dept. of Elementary and Secondary Education. The reporting home is what will be new.
“It will assess their cardiovascular fitness in the form of an endurance run n a one-mile-run for high school and middle school; abdominal strength n which is a sit-up test; flexibility n it’s called a sit and reach test; and upper body strength n the push up test,” said Margaret White, who supervises physical education teachers for SLPS. “And then we are measuring their body mass index, but that information will only be available at the request of the parent.”
The new school wellness policy was developed and implemented by SLPS, the St. Louis City Health Dept. and the Healthy Youth Partnership, a coalition of 70 community organizations.
