District Administration - November 2008 - (Page 32)

ADVERTISEMENT SenSible Snacking A District Administration web seminar digest Making it a part of your school nutrition program School administrators across the country are working hard to offer healthy and attractive choices in snacks and beverages. Still, concerns persist about meeting nutrition guidelines, getting community support, winning student acceptance and maintaining revenue. Our speakers, Kate Lampel Link and Christy Manso, both from the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, provide valuable insight for addressing such concerns in this edited digest of our web seminar. The goal is to create an environment where healthy eating and physical activity is the norm in schools, not the exception. Kate Lampel Link Alliance for a Healthier Generation A fter his bypass surgery President Clinton wanted the William J. Clinton Foundation to address heart health related issues. Who better to partner with than the American Heart Association? Together they turned their attention to the epidemic of childhood obesity. This joint venture established the Alliance for a Healthier Generation in May 2005. The goal is to halt the trend of childhood obesity by the year 2010 and reverse that trend by 2015. While the Alliance promotes both healthy eating and physical activity, on a large scale one of our focuses has been on snacks and beverages found in the school setting. Competitive foods are foods and beverages sold in competition with the federally funded school breakfast, lunch and after-school snack programs. The federally reimbursed programs adhere to USDA nutrition standards. Competitive foods are not regulated. They tend to be high in calories, sugar and fat. Recent studies have found a high prevalence of competitive foods on school campuses. Students eat between 35 to 50 percent of their calories in the school setting. Research indicates that children will eat healthier foods and beverages. We continually hear that they want to eat healthier. So students will eat healthier foods, especially if they’re introduced to them in a way that’s not just imposed upon them. In October 2006, several leading manufacturers in the Snack Food Association joined with the Alliance to establish and help schools implement guidelines for competitive foods. The original signatory companies were Campbell’s, PepsiCo, Dannon, Kraft, and Mars, with their Generation Max line. These companies demonstrate a commitment to working with the Alliance to encourage education leaders in schools to adopt these guidelines, and they agreed to offer only products to schools that comply with these guidelines. Let’s look at the competitive food guidelines. If you think of general nutrition advice, you are familiar with recommendations to decrease fat, calories, sodium and sugar, while increasing intake of vitamins, minerals, fiber and appropriate amounts of protein. That’s exactly what the competitive food guidelines of the Alliance recommends for snack products sold in schools. We say 35-10-35, and that means we limit snacks to 35 percent of calories in total fat, 10 percent of calories in saturated fat and 35 percent of sugar by weight. We allow for zero grams of trans fat and no more than 230 milligrams of sodium, and we like to see a cap of 100 calories. Overall, the goal of the Alliance Healthy Schools Program is to create a shift in which healthy eating and physical activity is the norm in schools, not the exception. So healthier products in the vending machines will be ubiquitous and active staff and students will be visible in all places in the school.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - November 2008

District Administration - November 2008
School Breakfasts: An Added Value
Contents
Editor’s Letter
Letters
1-2-3 Campus Safety
News Update
Administrator Profile
District Profile
Snacks as Part of Your School Nutrition Program
Technology
Facilities & Construction
Admissions
DA Web Seminars
Leadership Assessment
How Well Does This Web Site Work?
New Products
Technology Books
Professional Opinion
Supervisor’s Opinion
Crisis Response
Problem Solution
Research Center

District Administration - November 2008