St. Alphonsus School Wellness  Policy

        Children need access to healthful foods and opportunities to be physically active in order to grow, learn, and thrive. Also, good health fosters student attendance and education.  With the future in mind where obesity rates have doubled in children and tripled in adolescents over the last two decades, (with physical inactivity and excessive calorie intake the predominant causes), St. Alphonsus is committed to providing a school environment that promotes and protects children's health, well-being and ability to learn by supporting healthy eating and physical activity.

Therefore, it is the policy of the St. Alphonsus School that:

• The school will engage students, parents, teachers, food service professionals, health professionals, and others interested, in developing, implementing, monitoring, and reviewing school-wide nutrition and physical activity policies.
• All students in grades 5K-8 will have opportunities, support, and encouragement to be physically active on a regular basis.

• Foods and beverages sold or served at school will meet the nutrition recommendations of the U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
• Qualified food service professionals will provide students with access to a variety of affordable, nutritious, and appealing foods that meet the health and nutrition needs of and will provide clean, safe, and pleasant settings and adequate time for students to eat.
• To the maximum extent practicable, our school will participate in available federal school meal programs, including the National School Lunch Program.
• Our school will provide nutritional education and physical education to foster lifelong habits of healthy eating and physical activity, and will establish linkages between health education and school meal programs.

        To achieve these policy goals:

I.  St. Alphonsus will create a school health council to develop, implement, monitor, review, and, as necessary, revise school nutrition and physical activity policies.

Ø      A school health council consists of a group of individuals representing the school community, and includes parents, students, and cafeteria staff, members of the school board, school administrators, teachers, and health professionals.)

II. School meals served through the National School Lunch Program will be appealing and attractive to children, be served in clean and pleasant settings, meet, at a minimum, nutritional requirements established by local, state and federal standards and offer a variety of fruits and vegetables;¹  serve only low-fat (1%), 2% and fat-free milk² and ensure that half of the served grains are whole grain.³

St. Alphonsus should engage students and parents, through taste-tests of new entrees and surveys, in selecting foods sold through the school meal program in order to identify new, healthful, and appealing food choices.  In addition, St. Alphonsus should share information about the nutritional content of meals with parents and students.

III. St. Alphonsus will provide students with at least 20 minutes to eat after sitting down for lunch; will make every effort to schedule meal periods at appropriate times, e.g., lunch should be scheduled between 10:30 a.m. and 1p.m., will not schedule tutoring, club, or organizational meetings or activities during mealtimes, unless students may eat during such activities; and will try to pilot scheduling lunch periods to follow recess periods (in elementary schools).

IV. St. Alphonsus will strive to meet the nutrition standards for foods and beverages sold individually (i.e. foods sold through vending machines, fundraisers, school stores, etc.)

• Beverages allowed:  water or seltzer water, sports drinks, ice tea; fruit and vegetable juices and fruit-based drinks that contain at least 50% fruit juice; unflavored or flavored low-fat or fat-free and 2% fluid milk and nutritionally-equivalent nondairy beverages (to be defined by USDA);
• Beverages not allowed:  soft drinks containing caloric sweeteners; soda
• A food item sold individually should include a choice of at least two fruits and/or non-fried vegetables will be offered for sale at any location on the school site where foods are sold.

• Examples are:  fresh fruits and vegetables; 100% fruit or vegetable juice; fruit-based drinks that are at least 50% fruit juice and that do not contain additional caloric sweeteners; cooked, dried, or canned fruits (canned in fruit juice or light syrup); and cooked, dried, or canned vegetables (that meet the above fat and sodium guidelines).⁶

V.  To support children’s health and school nutrition education efforts, St. Alphonsus fundraising activities will encourage healthy options when available.  St. Alphonsus will encourage fundraising activities that promote physical activity. The school will list ideas for encouraged fundraising activities; such as Market Day.

VI. Parents are encouraged to make thoughtful choices when sending snacks for the school day.  Snacks should make a positive contribution to children’s diets and health, with an emphasis on serving fruits and vegetables as the primary snack and water as the primary beverage. St. Alphonsus will work toward disseminating a list of healthful snack items to teachers, after school program personnel, and parents.

VII. St. Alphonsus will encourage healthy foods or beverages for use as rewards.  We will discourage items that do not meet the nutrition standards for foods and beverages, as rewards for academic performance or good behavior⁷ and will not withhold food or beverages (including food served through school meals) as a punishment.

VIII.  For celebrations, St. Alphonsus will strive to include no more than one food or beverage that does not meet nutrition standards for foods and beverages sold individually. The school will distribute a list of healthy party ideas to parents and teachers.

• Some ideas here included:  donate a book or game for birthdays, bring a vegetable and dip or cheese and cracker tray instead, ask about teacher’s wish lists

IX. For school-sponsored events (such as, but not limited to, athletic events, dances, or performances), foods and beverages offered or sold at school sponsored events outside the school day, shall offer balanced offerings and healthy alternatives.

X.  St. Alphonsus School aims to teach, encourage, and support healthy eating by students.  We will provide nutrition education and engage in nutrition promotion that:

·         is offered at each grade level as part of a sequential, comprehensive, standard based programs designed to provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to promote and protect their health;

·         is part of not only health education classes, but also classroom instruction in subjects such as family and consumer education;

·         promotes fruits, vegetables, whole grain products, healthy food preparation methods, and health-enhancing nutrition practices;

·         links with school meal programs and nutrition related community services;

XI. St. Alphonsus will work towards the nationally-recommended amount of daily physical activity (i.e. at least 60 min/day) and help students to fully embrace regular physical activity as a personal behavior.  Toward this end, students need opportunities for physical activity beyond physical education class, therefore:

• classroom health education will complement physical education by reinforcing the knowledge and self-management skills needed to maintain a physically-active lifestyle and to reduce time spent on sedentary activities,
• classroom teachers will provide short physical activity breaks between lessons or classes, as appropriate (periodic movement breaks)

XII. St. Alphonsus will support parents’ efforts to provide a healthy diet and daily physical activity for their children.  The school will offer healthy eating seminars for parents and send home nutrition information one time a year. 

St. Alphonsus encourages parents to pack healthy lunches and snacks and to refrain from including beverages and foods that do not meet the above nutrition standards for individual foods and beverages. The school will provide parents with a list of foods that meet the school’s snack standards and ideas for healthy celebrations/parties, rewards, and fundraising activities.

XIII. School-based marketing will be consistent with nutrition education and health promotion. As such the school advises limiting food and beverage marketing to the promotion of foods and beverages that meet the nutrition standards for meals or for foods and beverages sold individually (above).⁸ School-based marketing of brands promoting predominantly low-nutrition foods and beverages⁹ is prohibited.

The promotion of healthy foods, including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy products is encouraged.

IVX. St. Alphonsus highly values the health and well-being of every staff member and will plan and implement staff wellness activities.  In implementing activities, staff input will be solicited.  

XV.  St. Alphonsus will pursue all students in grades 3K-8, including students with disabilities, special health-care needs, and in alternative educational settings, receiving  (2.5)* hours a week at the middle school level and 3 periods* a week at the elementary level of daily physical education for the entire school year. Students will spend at least 50% of physical education class time participating in moderate to vigorous physical activity.

• All elementary school students will have at least 20 minutes a day of supervised recess, preferably outdoors, during which schools should encourage moderate to vigorous physical activity verbally and through the provision of space and equipment.
• The school is encouraged to offer extracurricular physical activity programs.   The school will try to offer a range of activities that meet the needs, interests, and abilities of all students, including boys, girls, students with disabilities, and students with special health-care needs. 
• Teachers and other school and community personnel will not use physical activity (e.g., running laps, pushups) or withhold opportunities for physical activity (e.g., recess, physical education) as punishment.

XVI. Monitoring and Policy Review

A baseline assessment of St. Alphonsus’ existing nutrition and physical activity environments will be conducted.  This policy will then be reviewed annually.