Food for thought: Give a kid an apple and he’ll do better in school.
At Southwoods Elementary healthier options are all the rage, and the students are loving it.
"If kids eat a sugar breakfast, they get a sugar rush and what do you think is going to happen an hour later?" said Roxanne Smith, nurse at Southwoods Elementary. "If you are eating junk food all the time think about what happens. The administration here is so very supportive. They understand how academics and nutrition tie together."
Southwoods is one of 23 schools participating in the Healthier Options for Public Schoolchildren study developed by the Agatston Research Foundation.
"It’s about teaching kids how to make healthy choices," she said. "There are four principles. Decrease fat, increase fiber, drink water, and exercise."
Smith said the program seems to be doing really well in the school. According to the Foundation the study is designed to test holistic nutrition and healthy lifestyle management in an elementary school setting.
Smith said this includes signs in the cafeteria identifying what specific foods do for different parts of the body as well as teachers utilizing healthy eating options in the classroom setting.
"November’s food of the month is lean meats and low fat cheeses," she said. "Last year one of our teachers celebrated national sandwich day with her class by reading a book, using recipes to do math problems, teaching a lesson about sandwiches and using different types of breads."
Despite its goal of tying nutrition to education, the program is not utilized district-wide.
"Technically we follow the guidelines without officially being a part of the program," said the St. Johns County School District’s nutrition specialist Jodi Douglas. "We follow state and USDA standards."
Margie Davidson, director of community relations, said part of the reason the program is not in place district-wide has to do with funds.
"Sometimes districts have the money to institute these programs and sometimes they don’t," said Davidson.
Despite the fact that the HOPS program is not in every elementary school in the district, Food and Nutrition Services Director Elizabeth Binninger said the Ponte Vedra schools, especially PVPV/Rawlings Elementary, are also tying nutrition to learning.
"At PVPV they have a committee that meets to discuss the cafeteria and cafeteria foods," she said. "Last year they added organic milk. They offer healthy alternatives and the menu meets the requirements."
While the district does not have a curriculum-based nutrition education program in place, they did develop a federally mandated wellness policy in 2006, which includes goals for nutrition education and physical education in a way that promotes student wellness. That means monitoring school lunch menus and specific guidelines for physical education at all levels. The policy goes so far as to say that a la carte food and beverage items must meet the federal recommended guidelines prohibiting foods of minimal nutritional value from being sold in the lunchroom.
Douglas said vending machines on school campuses must include water, fruit juice and non-carbonate drinks in their offerings and the location of the vending machines and the times they are operational are monitored by the district.
"They are on timers," she said of the vending machines. "They cannot be turned on until one hour past the last lunch period."
Smith said the school board has taken an interest in the Southwoods experiment and that she would love to see the program expanded district-wide.
