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SUCCESS STORIES
 Jennifer Myers - Caring Mothers Donate Their Time and Bring Success
Jennifer Myers is an enthusiastic, healthy mother who lives in Aurora, Colorado and is dedicated to trying to implement better nutrition and health into children's schools. This is her story…
As one member of a group of parents seeking to implement better nutrition and wellness in schools, Jennifer offered to help with Healthy Choices Week in a local elementary school. Healthy Choices Week consisted of one week that was dedicated to focusing on nutrition and movement (exercise). Jennifer, along with other parent volunteers, assisted the students of Creekside Elementary School in Aurora, Colorado.
At the beginning of Healthy Choices Week pedometers were given to every student and teacher in the school. The students and teachers ranged from kindergarten to fifth grade. During the five school days the pedometers were worn at all times, tracking all movement in a student's typical day. Every night the students recorded their statistics from that day in a log which would be shared in class at the end of the week. On Friday all students added their totals for the week, along with that of their teacher, to determine a class total.
The pedometers provided the initiative for students to try to log the most steps and therefore be the first to reach a "summit". In the mountains many people enjoy hiking as a recreational and athletic pastime. With this idea in mind, the theme of the pedometer activity was related to reaching a summit or the top. In a friendly competition, the class with the largest number, or reaching the "summit" first (being the most active), would receive a healthy prize. The prize in this case was a healthy popcorn party.
The pedometers were a surefire way to really motivate the kids and their teachers to get moving and active. The pedometers recorded steps as well as any movement or activity, including rollerblading, walking, hiking, or even yard work. Kids even started snowshoeing at recess to add to their totals! The friendly competition coupled with each child actually seeing personal achievement really encouraged healthy activity.
The second aspect of Healthy Choices Week focused on nutrition. Kaiser Permanente, a private insurance group, funded and hosted a skit for the school. This skit entitled "The Nutrition Detective" was performed in an assembly attended by the entire student body. Engaging students of all grades, the skit told the story of a young soccer player who suddenly collapsed from what the "Nutrition Detective" later found to be poor nutrition and bad eating habits.
This skit jumpstarted the teachers and parent volunteers to open discussion and conduct activities that taught the kids about nutrition and healthy eating. Jennifer was involved in a lesson where she introduced the idea of "traffic light" foods. The activity helped the children see an easy way to identify foods that were either good, moderate, or poor choices. Other teachers took to this method as well; some used the idea to implement "traffic light snacks". Some even rewarded "green lights snacks" when students brought them for snack time.
Many people were involved in this upbeat program, and fostering the wellness of children at Creekside Elementary School through education was the obvious goal. Programs such as Healthy Choices Week can really motivate and excite positive change in any age group. It was clear that the kids really enjoyed the entire week of exercise and learning. At home parents noticed that their children were excited to share what they had learned during the program. Parents commented that their children asked for healthy snacks and were also more eager to play outdoors rather than watch TV or play video games.
This is just one example of how a few caring people, like Jennifer Myer, helped to motivate the next generation to lead healthier and happier lives. This program is a great demonstration of how a little creativity can go a long way. The importance of this story's message should motivate all of us to look for ways, however small they may seem, to encourage and promote healthy eating and living in today's children.
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Janet Triner - A Persistent Teacher Shares Her Success
Janet Triner is a third grade teacher in the Chicago area who has become a great supporter of The Wellness Forum's philosophy and its programs for schools. This is her story…
I was introduced to Dr. Pam Popper through a mutual acquaintance, and signed up to get daily health messages from her through voice mail. I was really excited when I finally got a chance to attend her lecture in Chicago and meet her in person. I ordered her educational materials and was an almost immediate convert to The Wellness Forum's eating plan.
To further my education and to learn more about how to use this new information to help students, I attended the Wellness Forum Foundation's annual Nutrition for Kids Conference in Columbus, Ohio. This is when I started to get really motivated!
At about the same time, I had volunteered to be on the Science Committee for our school district, and to review our science and health curricula. The courses I took through The Wellness Forum convinced me that much of what we were teaching our students about nutrition was incorrect or outdated. I had already started sharing better and more up-to-date information with my third grade students, and they were quite receptive.
Another issue that I had become quite concerned about was the lunches we were offering kids in the cafeteria. I knew that serious changes were needed here too.
So, I suggested (over and over) that we form a school nutrition committee. At first no one paid much attention to me, but I think eventually everyone got tired of my nagging, and they finally decided to form such a committee. I volunteered to co-chair it with a friend immediately!
Our curriculum director became an early and strong supporter, and we had teachers from all grade levels, a school board member, and both a high school and middle school student all agree to participate. The state's mandating a wellness plan gave everyone extra incentive to make improvements.
We have decided that our first goal is to educate teachers and then begin to incorporate nutrition education into each grade level. Once these activities are well underway, we will start providing programming for parents. My experience, however, is that kids are really good at sharing the information they learn about good health and nutrition with their parents, so this process will probably start much earlier.
Many teachers have attended my presentations on the effect of food on the brain and learning. They are aware of my passion for good health and nutrition, and have come to me to learn more or help them to make positive changes in their own situations. For example, I helped one teacher to convince her children's daycare center to stop using sugary snacks and unhealthy foods as rewards.
I am so excited because this program will give me even more opportunities to share information with my peers and influence what children in other classrooms learn.
I hope everyone who reads this feels inspired to get educated about optimal health, speak up and share with others, and be persistent and insistent in pushing for change.
--- Janet Triner
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Al Schieder
Almost all parents agree that reform in the area of school food is needed, but the response from schools is often that the school system cannot afford to make changes. Fortunately, there are a growing number of schools and school systems that are showing this not to be true.
Al Schieder took charge of reform efforts at the Folsom Cordova Unified School District near Sacramento, which was losing $200,000 per year when he arrived. Schieder, who had a background as a restaurant owner, applied his business skills to the situation. He asked for a loan to restructure the cafeterias and then eliminated a la carte foods and soft drinks. He installed salad bars and breakfast programs in every grade school.
By 2001, the program had turned around financially and was producing a $300,000 annual profit and during an 8-year period of time, sales doubled from $1.7 to $3.5 million per year.
Aptos Middle Schools in San Francisco is another success story. Most students are minorities and 40% qualify for free lunches. The principal engaged the assistance of a parent-volunteer, Dana Woldow to help fix the school lunch program. She asked for and got permission from the Superintendent to assemble a committee of parents and health professionals to work on the issue. The committee set some parameters for fat and sugar consumption and then started eliminating foods like Slim Jims, Hostess Cakes, taco pockets, large cheeseburgers, giant pizzas, French fries and Gatorade.
The committee also asked the kids what they wanted and the responses were interesting - they asked for soup, Subway sandwiches and sushi. The school does not allow fast food vendors to market in the schools, so the cafeteria created its own products. At the end of the first year, the food service program made a profit for the first time ever and it has remained profitable ever since.
According to Woldow, both behavior and academic achievement have improved since the changes were made. The most crowded time at the counselor's office used to be after lunch when the effects of sugar consumption kicked in, causing bad behavior. School officials say this is no longer the case and that for the most part, only kids with serious problems end up in the counselor's office.
Test scores also improved after the food improved. Students scored 45 points higher on the Academic Performance Index than they had on previous tests. The target was for only a 7-point improvement.
The principal continues to motivate healthier behaviors by giving kids who are eating healthy foods or drinking water raffle tickets, which has caused kids to engage in more of these healthy behaviors in order to get prizes. As a result the San Francisco Unified School District has been instituting district-wide initiatives to improve school food.
There are many other examples showing that making positive changes does not actually end up costing money, but rather improving profits. But should there be an exception somewhere (a school system that lost $100,000 instead of making more money), I would respond by stating that this is a better investment than many others I have seen schools make; and that if someone brought a program to the school that had been proven to improve behavior and test scores, most schools systems would consider it regardless of the cost.
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