Articles in the Wellness category

Film continues to underscore importance of healthy diet in U.S.

 

I think it was a coincidence, but this weekend the 2004 documentary “Super Size Me” showed up on cable. Since the Child Nutrition Act reauthorization consumed much of my work last week, it somehow seemed appropriate to review filmmaker Morgan Spurlock’s assault on McDonalds and its influence on an increasingly overweight and unhealthy American population.

It had been several years since my husband and I had watched Morgan spend 30 days of his life eating three meals a day from McDonalds menus and documenting the impact on his body (a gain of almost 25 lbs., plus a fatty liver issues, depression, and an addiction to high-fat, high carbohydrate food). The experiment—while extreme—did make us question our own eating habits and bemoan all the fast food we’d consumed in our earlier years.

What we’d both forgotten was that Morgan didn’t spend his entire 30 days investigating McDonalds—along the way on his cross-country trip, he visited several schools. At a West Virginia elementary school, he toured a school cafeteria freezer with a cook who showed him the vats of frozen, high-fat processed foods sent by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as part of the federal school lunch program.

The worker explained that she and her colleagues rarely made food from scratch but merely reheated items such as barbeque pork sandwiches. Morgan also interviewed students at a Wisconsin high school who cobbled together lunches of French fries, potato chips, candy bars, and high sugar drinks from the school’s cafeteria line and vending machines.
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Naomi Dillon|December 6th, 2010|Categories: Governance, Leading Source, Policy Formation, Wellness|Tags: , , |

House passes Child Nutrition Act, NSBA concerns cited

This afternoon the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill to reauthorize the Child Nutrition Act by a final vote of 264-157, mainly on party lines. The bill will now be sent to the White House, and President Obama has indicated he will sign it.

NSBA has many concerns about the financial and operational impact of this legislation, known as the “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act” (S. 3307).

“Despite the good intentions to improve child nutrition, it is disappointing that the U.S. House of Representatives would pass such an important bill without providing adequate funding for local school districts to comply with the new requirements,” said NSBA Executive Director Anne L. Bryant. “This will just add a new burden for schools to pay for another unfunded mandate at a time when there are critical budget shortfalls.  It is imperative that the Obama administration, once this bill is signed into law, work closely with school district representatives to implement S. 3307 to mitigate the negative consequences for students and schools.”

The bill seeks to increase the nutritional content of foods sold not only in school cafeterias but also vending machines and other school venues but also increase the number of students eligible for free or reduced price lunches. The measure also would set new standards and would require new training for school food service workers.

One of NSBA’s major concerns is that the federal reimbursement for school meals is inadequate for most districts to cover the full cost of providing them. The U. S. Department of Agriculture reports the full cost of providing free lunches exceeds the federal reimbursement currently by more than thirty cents per meal. While S. 3307 authorizes a six-cent increase per school lunch for districts that voluntarily adopt updated federal standards for school meals, NSBA estimates the actual increased cost of compliance ranges from about 11 to 25 cents per meal, thus increasing the reimbursement gap that already exists.  Therefore, a school district serving subsidized lunches to 5,000 students has a potential shortfall of $270,000 under the current reimbursement rate. With the increase from S. 3307, an additional $54,000 could be added to a district’s shortfall.

During a preliminary debate on the bill on Dec. 1, several members of the House cited NSBA’s concerns, which were outlined in a letter sent to members on Nov. 30.

The final approval of S. 3307 came after a series of procedural votes that included a motion to send the bill back to the Education and Labor Committee.  NSBA issued a statement in support of  that action “as a means to enable the Congress to give more thorough review of the entire bill and to address several objections NSBA has” to the legislation, which was referred to during debate by Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.), incoming chair of the House Education & Labor Committee for the 112th Congress.  However, those efforts failed.

Joetta Sack-Min|December 2nd, 2010|Categories: Educational Legislation, Food Service, Nutrition, School Board News, Wellness|

Adequate federal funding is needed to support child nutrition initiatives in our schools

Today, the U.S. House of Representatives is exspected to vote on the child nutrition reauthorization (S. 3307).

Despite good intentions to improve child nutrition, this bill has numerous new and problematic requirements that taken together could make it difficult, if not impossible, for school districts to successfully implement.

If S. 3307 is passed by the House, it will go to President Barack Obama as it has already been passed by the Senate.

A major concern with the bill is that the federal reimbursement for school meals is inadequate for most districts to cover the full cost of providing them. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports the full cost of providing free lunches exceeds the federal reimbursement currently by more than 30 cents per meal. While S. 3307 authorizes a 6 cents increase per school lunch for districts that voluntarily adopt updated federal standards for school meals, NSBA estimates the actual increased cost of compliance ranges from 11-25 cents per meal, thus increasing the reimbursement gap that already exists. Therefore, a school district serving subsidized lunches to 5,000 students has a potential shortfall of $270,000 under the current reimbursement rate. With the increase from S. 3307, an additional $54,000 could be added to a district’s shortfall.

BoardBuzz thinks that without adequate funding, schools could find it difficult to comply with the proposed new standards, reporting, training, administration, and other mandates.

Alexis Rice|December 2nd, 2010|Categories: Boardbuzz, Educational Finance, Educational Legislation, Federal Programs, Wellness|

World AIDS Day: not a time to be complacent

Today, December 1, 2010 is World AIDS Day.  In observing this day, BoardBuzz wants to remind its readers that, although there have been great strides in the prevention of HIV/AIDS (just last week there was an announcement on a breakthrough prevention measure), the world is still experiencing an epidemic of the disease.  And, despite strong advances also with HIV/AIDS treatment, 25 million people have died due to the disease since the first cases started being reported in 1981.

This disease has had much impact among youth in the U.S. in the past few years, especially those of minority races and ethnicities.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2004 alone, an estimated 4,883 young people received a diagnosis of HIV infection or AIDS, representing about 13% of the persons given a diagnosis during that year. 

What makes young people vulnerable to HIV infection?  Well, several factors such as early age at sexual initiation, substance abuse, and lack of awareness.  In addition, poverty and dropping out of school.  Such data speak of the importance of coordinated school health approaches within schools, where kids can have access to valuable health information as well as services.  And also of policies and practices that help kids stay in school, which help equip students with skills to enter the workforce successfully and promote their learning of lifelong healthy behaviors. 

BoardBuzz believes that World AIDS Day marks a time to not be complacent, but rather proactive.  It’s a moment to celebrate progress, but ponder what still needs to be accomplished.  NSBA is here to help school leaders navigate such issues.  A few years ago, NSBA published a book “Living with HIV/AIDS: Students Tell Their Stories of Stigma, Courage, and Resilience” that focuses on the challenges students affected by HIV/AIDS have dealt with in growing up and at school, and the opportunities school leaders have to contribute to their well-being and to HIV awareness and prevention.  NSBA also has an “HIV/AIDS Policy Development 101″ Packet.  In addition, NSBA recently published a resource that can help school boards establish a coordinated approach to health within schools.  So check these out!  And for recent domestic and global HIV/AIDS statistics, visit the Kaiser Family Foundation’s HIV/AIDS webpage.

Daniela Espinosa|December 1st, 2010|Categories: Boardbuzz, Wellness|

NSBA notes flaws in child nutrition bill scheduled for vote

(updated to reflect new date of vote)

The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote Dec. 2 on a bill to reauthorize the Child Nutrition Act, which, if passed, would send the legislation to President Obama this month.

NSBA is working to amplify the concerns of school districts about the financial and operational impact of this legislation, known as the “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act” (S. 3307). During a preliminary debate on the bill, several members of the House cited NSBA’s concerns. On Nov. 30, NSBA sent a letter to Representatives outlining those issues, which include:

  • Standards—S. 3307 authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to issue standards for all foods sold outside the school meal program, on the school campus, and at anytime during the school day. Many school districts already have modified and improved options for foods sold outside the federal school meals program and rely on revenue from those sales for school operations.
  • Funding—The bill authorizes $4.5 billion in new funding over 10 years. The bulk of new funding will go toward increasing the reimbursement rate for school lunches; however, the funding level is inadequate to cover the cost to most school districts of compliance with new standards, reporting, and implementation requirements.
  • Reimbursement—The bill authorizes a six-cent increase per school lunch that complies with updated nutrition standards for school meals. NSBA estimates the actual increased cost of compliance ranges from 11 to 25 cents. There is no reimbursement increase for school breakfast in either bill. Compliance with updated standards is not mandatory, but Congressional Budget Office scoring for the legislation assumes that all school districts will do so—and districts will be under scrutiny due to new reporting requirements in the bill.
  • Paid meal pricing—The bill regulates how schools establish prices for paid meals if it appears that the price is artificially low compared to subsidized meals. The price of paid meals is both an access issue and a local control issue. School districts may try to keep the price of meals low in order to assure that low-income families that don’t qualify for subsidized meals can still afford a school lunch.

NSBA is asking the House members to instead pass a simple extension of the current programs.

“Despite good intentions, this bill has many new and problematic requirements that, taken together, make it difficult if not impossible for school districts to successfully implement,” said Lucy Gettman, NSBA’s director of federal programs. “It creates additional burdens and unfunded mandates at a time when our school districts are facing severe budget shortfalls.”

NSBA has communicated these concerns to members of Congress and the Obama administration throughout the two-year legislative process.

According to NSBA’s advocacy department, other provisions in S. 3307 create new requirements for school districts, but provide no new federal funding for implementation. These include:

  • Training and certification requirements for all school food service personnel.
  • Expanded Wellness Policy requirements including implementation status reports and periodic reassessments of the policy.
  • New reporting requirements on the school nutrition environment, including food safety, local wellness polices, program participation, and nutritional quality of meals.
  • Independent review of applications in high-error/high-risk districts.
  • Extension of food safety requirements to the entire school campus.
  • Authority for the Secretary to levy fines against states and districts for program rule violations.
Joetta Sack-Min|November 30th, 2010|Categories: Educational Legislation, School Board News, Wellness|

Schools still have long way to go in preventing anti-gay harassment

ASBJFifty years from now, I predict, all the controversy over the rights of gay people to marry, to serve in the military, to be protected from bullying and harassment — in short, to live their lives like other ordinary Americans — will seem as distant (and, to the more progressive younger generation, as vaguely incomprehensible) as the struggles over racial equality and a woman’s right to vote.  I most likely won’t be around to see this, of course, but everything I know about how social and political change occurs in this country says that fear and prejudice will eventually give way to, well, reality.

But we’re not there yet. And one has to look only at the ongoing harassment of gay students in public schools and colleges to see how far we have to go. For the current issue of ASBJ, I wrote an update about this harassment and what schools are, and are not, doing about it. The occasion was a tragic one: the suicides of at least six LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) students within the first month of school.

Thankfully, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights has taken an important step, telling districts that they could lose federal funds if they don’t take steps to protect gay students.

“A school must take prompt and effective steps reasonably calculated to end the harassment, eliminate any hostile environment and its effects, and prevent the harassment from recurring,” the department said in a recent letter to schools.

My story ends with a heartfelt plea from Robert Rader, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education, for school board members to look beyond the current bitter politics of the issue and work to end the harassment.

“We are losing wonderful kids,” says Rader, who has a transgendered child in college. “And we owe those who are living more than a life of shame and sadness.”

Lawrence Hardy, Senior Editor

Naomi Dillon|November 30th, 2010|Categories: Leading Source, NSBA Publications, Wellness|Tags: , |

Creating food allergies policies and practices in schools

Eating food can be a pleasurable experience and food is often used to celebrate an occasion.  But what happens when certain foods are the enemy and make you afraid of eating?  Across the country, approximately three million children face that problem.  Food allergic children don’t know when the next food they eat will bring on a set of immunological responses that can sometimes lead to anaphylaxis – a severe, whole-body allergic reaction that develops rapidly, often within seconds or minutes and can be life-threatening.   

How can those children feel safe and supported in the school environment? That is what NSBA sought to answer through a webcast that aired on November 9, 2010.  The webcast was developed by NSBA to provide school leaders with the necessary information and tools to help keep food allergic children safe and ready to learn. 

The webcast featured NSBA’s own senior staff attorney, Lisa Soronen, who spoke of the legal implications of not addressing food allergies within schools, and School Health project associate Amanda Martinez, who provided the audience with useful resources to help revise or develop food allergy policies and practices within schools.  In addition, panelists included a school board member, a superintendent, a nutrition coordinator, a health services director, a school nurse, a CDC health scientist, a medical advisor to the FDA, a Vice President of FAAN, and two students and their parents who shared their personal experiences in dealing with food allergies in school.

The webcast covered an array of topics related to food allergies including: clinical background; problems surrounding food allergic children such as bullying; and food allergy policy, procedure and practice issues.  The panelists’ key messages to better manage food allergies within schools are: students, school staff, parents and the community need to be educated on the facts and practices; communication needs to be open and ongoing; and planning and training are essential. 

BoardBuzz has heard great things about the webcast and NSBA School Health Programs’ staff have received excellent reviews on it.  If you didn’t have the opportunity to view the webcast live, don’t miss out on checking its archived version.  To access it, go to http://www.esgn.tv/ and click on the webcast icon and let us know what you think!

Daniela Espinosa|November 29th, 2010|Categories: Boardbuzz, Wellness|

Concussions in high school football

BoardBuzz likes that there has been a stronger focus and awareness on concussions in athletes of all level.

Injuries and even deaths have always been a part of athletics. Until the 1970s, when helmets became effective, football players often died from traumatic head injuries.

Today, CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta reported on a high school football athlete who suffered a brain injury due to multiple concussions.

Check out the video report on CNN’s website.

Alexis Rice|November 23rd, 2010|Categories: Boardbuzz, High Schools, Multimedia and Webinars, Wellness|

The Great American Smokeout- What will your district do?

BoardBuzz readers have seen a lot of changes in tobacco use prevention this year – a study was published demonstrating the effectiveness of tobacco-free school policies in Washington state and Australia. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published two reports highlighting new evidence for renewed efforts to keep kids from starting to smoke, and the Food and Drug Administration is proposing to add larger, graphic warning labels to cigarette packaging.

Yet even with all of this attention, BoardBuzz knows that smoking remains the leading preventable cause of death in the U.S., and the tobacco industry remains innovative in its insidious marketing efforts – continuing to reach children with new “e-cigarettes,” menthol flavored additives, and forays into marketing through social media.  School districts can do their part in fighting the tobacco epidemic by making sure that all schools have comprehensive tobacco-free school policies – that is, policies which prohibit the use of all tobacco products, on all school property, for all people, at all times.

Today marks the 35th anniversary of the Great American Smokeout, a day to combat tobacco addiction by asking smokers not to light up for one day.  On this day, thousands of people around the country will try to go a day without smoking, an experiment that will hopefully encourage many of them to quit altogether.  BoardBuzz thinks this is a great opportunity to start positive role modeling for kids and hopes that every school district will participate!

If your district or school is participating, we would love to hear about it- leave a comment!

And don’t forget that NSBA’s School Health Programs has a variety of resources available to help update and implement school tobacco policies, including a comprehensive packet of information: “Tobacco Use Prevention 101.” School boards will want to consult with their state school boards association as well to learn about sample or model policies and other information they may have and ensure that any policy adopted complies with relevant state laws. If you would like more information, or need assistance with your comprehensive tobacco-free schools policy, please visit NSBA’s School Health Programs or contact schoolhealth@nsba.org.

Caroline Myers|November 18th, 2010|Categories: Boardbuzz, Governance, Wellness|

Raising awareness of global child abuse

This Friday, November 19 is the 10th annual World Day for the Prevention of Child Abuse, a recognition initiated in 2000 by the Women’s World Summit Foundation.  Many activities will take place around the world to increase awareness and educate people about this ongoing, global problem.

BoardBuzz recently read an inspirational memoir dealing with this difficult subject – and surprisingly, the book was not written by a woman, but by actor and former professional athlete Victor Rivas Rivers. In A Private Family Matter, the Cuban-born Rivers outlines his struggles to overcome his abusive childhood with the help of teachers, coaches and other families within his community. Rivers talks about his journey in this video from a speech given at the City Club of Cleveland:

 

Victor Rivas Rivers will be the National Hispanic Caucus Luncheon speaker on Monday, April 11 at the 2011 NSBA Annual Conference.

Barbara Moody|November 17th, 2010|Categories: Boardbuzz, Conferences and Events, Multimedia and Webinars, Student Achievement, Wellness|
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