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While the Metro Boston area still has lower obesity rates than the national average, obesity rates are rising at an alarming pace.  This is leading to an increase in obesity-related illnesses, like diabetes, and is being disproportionately reflected in communities of color, immigrant communities, and among the elderly.  Targeting children with exercise and healthy eating programs has shown to be an effective way of reducing childhood obesity, which, in turn, reduces adult obesity.   School nutrition is another area that has long been a source of concern for advocates.  Because many students eat one or more meals a day at school, serving fresh healthy food there can not only positively impact their health, it can help to create positive eating habits that can last their lifetimes. 

10)    Continuously assess school wellness and health policies
To comply with Federal law, each school district participating in a program authorized by the National School Lunch Act must have a school wellness policy in place.  To develop and implement that policy, the law requires that parents, students, representatives of the school food authority, the school board, school administrators, and the public work together in what is frequently called a wellness committee.  The existence of a committee whose function is to examine wellness policies and outcomes at a district level is an incredible opportunity, but one of which far too few school districts take full advantage.  Used to their full capacity, these committees could be a crucial link between schools and communities in dealing with health issues that go beyond the school day.  They could also be used to examine and address health and nutrition issues that are unique to or different in particular districts, and to develop and help implement the specific policies that each school district needs.

School superintendents should examine their wellness committees to ensure that they engage the community as fully as possible and that the approach they take to school health is as broad and holistic as possible.  They must also be more actively involved in supporting school superintendents through choosing and implementing health curricula and other health policy decisions.

School districts should also provide opportunities and resources for physical education (PE) and health teachers to assess the school environment and policies, using available tools from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  Additionally, school districts need to address concerns of their health and PE teachers, including lack of facilities/equipment; lack of qualified certified teachers; student: teacher ratio so that it is similar to that of core classes.   All districts should build time into the school day to provide health and PE classes, and should provide adequate professional development opportunities for health and PE teachers

10.a    School districts should periodically convene the appropriate district personnel to assess the school environment and policies through the use of CDC’s School Health Index, CDC Physical Education Curriculum Analysis Tool, CDC’s Health Education Curriculum Analysis Tool

11)    Disseminate and implement updated health and physical education framework and curricula
As with all other areas of study covered in K-12 education, the State Board of Education sets frameworks for what students should be learning about health education.  This framework is based in the latest research about health and human development, and is developed with the collaboration of educators, public health officials, and many other experts.  There are many curricula – more specific guidelines aimed at particular age groups and subjects – that have been used to satisfy the requirements of the framework, some with greater success than others.  Just as it creates and disseminates frameworks for education, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education should compile and rank health curricula.  This will allow educators to choose the most effective models on which to base their own classroom instruction. 

11.a    The Department of Education should compile models of successful evidence-based curricula.

11.b    School superintendents should adopt approved health and physical education curricula for their districts.

11.c    The Department of Education should update the Massachusetts Comprehensive Health Curriculum Framework to reflect current best practices

12)    Establish standards for healthy snacks and beverages in schools
The Department of Public Health must establish healthy standards for snacks and beverages sold in vending machines, school stores, and cafeteria ala carte lines. This should include the replacement of sodas in school cafeterias with healthier alternatives, such as low-fat milk and water; the requirement that fresh fruit and vegetables are made available in all school cafeterias; and the limitation of fat and sugars in snacks to a healthy amount. 

12.a    Pass “An Act to Promote Proper School Nutrition” or equivalent legislation which would require healthy standards for drinks and snacks sold in public schools.

13)    Invest in professional staff and facilities for fresh food preparation
Many schools have hired food service corporations as a cost-cutting measure; much of the saving is realized through elimination of senior employees, and by transferring the food service jobs from the public sector (school system employees) to private sector.  New employees are low-skill, low-wage workers; cost-cutting is achieved through greater purchase of pre-prepared foods; very little food preparation done by food service company employees. 

13.a    Massachusetts School Building Authority should require facilities for fresh food preparation in new schools

14)    Expand farm to school programs
Another way to serve both the health of Metro Boston’s children and its farmers is to increase the interaction between local farms and schools.  This has the potential to benefit not only the Massachusetts schoolchildren that would have increased access to fresh, healthy produce, but the region’s independent farmers.  For more strategies to help small farmers, see Strategy 7 (Natural Landscapes).  Currently, the Commonwealth has a limited Farm-to-School program that, through technical assistance to farmers and individual schools, helped more than 85 public school districts and 13 colleges in the Commonwealth to serve local food.  Over 40 farms are currently selling to schools across the state.  There are many more school districts without this assistance, and the barriers to purchasing local produce – such as exclusive purchasing contracts between school cafeterias and certain vendors, or the inability of schools to cope with the increased work that comes with purchasing unprocessed produce rather than frozen pre-cooked lunches – can be hard to overcome.  It is only with a greatly expanded Farms-to-Schools program that the Commonwealth will begin to reach all of the schools in need of such technical assistance.

14.a    The Department of Agricultural Resources should expand the Farm-to-School program

14.b    The Department of Agricultural Resources should provide increased funding for Massachusetts Harvest for Students program

15)    Create “Edible Schoolyards” and associated programming
Create “edible schoolyards” to help teach children about gardening, agriculture, and fresh food.  In Berkeley CA, the Edible Schoolyard consists of a one-acre organic garden and a kitchen-classroom. In the garden, students are involved in all aspects of planting and cultivation; and in the kitchen-classroom, they prepare, serve, and eat food, some of which they have grown themselves. These activities are woven into the curriculum and are part of the school day. A new ecologically designed cafeteria is being built and the program is preparing for the transformation of the school lunch program. When the cafeteria has been built, lunch will be an everyday, hands-on experience and an essential part of the life of the school.  http://www.edibleschoolyard.org/homepage.html 

15.a    The Massachusetts School Building Authority should incorporate edible schoolyards into school construction projects