Healthy Schools Campaign

Rachael Ray & Jamie Oliver Add Star Power to Push for Healthy School Lunches

By Amanda Chablani, HSC Policy Specialist

In the past few years, we’ve seen several chefs and food writers talking about health, the environment, and national food policy. Most notably, Alice Waters, of Berkeley’s Chez Panisse and the exciting Edible Schoolyard, has for years been outspoken about the availability of local sustainable farming. Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma spent an unprecedented number of weeks on the New York Times bestsellers list and received a 2007 James Beard Award. And just last year, Mark Bittman, the New York Times food writer, published Food Matters, a book he describes as exploring “the links among global warming and other environmental challenges, obesity and the so-called lifestyle diseases, and the overproduction and overconsumption of meat, simple carbohydrates, and junk food.” (For an excellent discussion on food policy with Bittman, check this out).  

But from what I can tell, until now, there hasn’t been a whole lot of interest in food policy from broadcast media, so I was happy to see this news story about Rachael Ray, the woman who made EVOO a household acronym, working to improve school food.    

I love how Rachael brings attention back to the powerful message that providing good nutrition to kids is a preventative health strategy and should be part of the national health care debate. And, as the kids of P.S. 89 make clear, healthy school food can be delicious! 

The New York Public School District had been successfully working to improve their school food before Rachael came along, as Rachael explains:

“With the small amount of money they have to spend, they’ve made such great strides. And I think this will really help with the obesity rates -- if we can get great nutrition into every public school coast to coast, for breakfast and lunch, that’s going to make a dent in it.” 

By lending her star power to the issue, Rachael brings attention at a vital moment in the policy debate around the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act.   

And she’s not the only one! 

Jamie Oliver is bringing his cooking skills, and the nation’s attention, to the school lunch offering in Huntington, West Virginia on his upcoming show Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. On this side of the Atlantic, Jamie is known for his successful cooking show The Naked Chef, but on the other side of the pond he’s just as famous for his philanthropic work and his four-part special Jamie’s School Dinners that exposed, and attempted to improve, the state of school lunch in England. At least in part because of his efforts, the British government invested more than a billion dollars in improving school lunch nationally. 

These celebrity chefs are doing a great job raising awareness of this important issue, and while we think it is especially important for you to raise your voices in support of healthy school food, we are glad to see Rachael Ray and Jamie Oliver getting involved, too.  

EPA Leader Lisa Jackson Explains Why Environmentalism for Everyone

By Amanda Chablani, HSC Policy Specialist


As we’ve seen here in Chicago, environmental health factors disproportionately impact the poor, people of color, and children. But for a variety of reasons, environmental concerns are most often championed by people outside those communities. Lisa Jackson, head of the EPA, summarizes this nicely in her article at Huffington Post:

The term "environmentalism" brings to mind pristine wilderness and wide-open landscapes. What doesn't come to mind is an apartment building, a city block, or an inner city kid who has trouble breathing on hot days. Even issues like climate change are distant concerns for poor and minority citizens (and their advocates) who are struggling daily for equality in education, health care and economic opportunity...

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-p-jackson/why-we-need-to-sell-the-e_b_271650.html

Blacks die from asthma twice as often as whites, and have higher cancer mortality rates than any other group. Nearly 30 million Latinos -- 72 percent of the U.S. Latino population -- live in places that don't meet US air pollution standards. Native American homes lack clean water at almost 10 times the national rate.

At HSC, we’ve long partnered with parents to improve the health and wellness environments of their children's schools. Our Parents United for Healthy Schools/Padres Unidos para Escuelas Saludables program brings together parents from Chicago's Latino and African-American communities to speak up for changes in the school environment -- such as bringing back recess -- that can reduce childhood obesity and asthma, two epidemics that disproportionately affect children in urban minority communities.

HSC provides training and resources so that parents can take on leadership roles in creating the kind of meaningful, sustainable change that helps combat serious health disparities.

HSC works with parents in Austin, an African-American community in Chicago, as part of the Austin Environmental Health and Justice Project, a two-year EPA-funded initiative of HSC and COFI (Community Organizing and Family Issues) to educate parents, teachers, administrators, custodians, nurses and students about how the school environment affects their health. The project also built a network of people at each school to address environmental health issues.

Parents and grandparents who took part in the project explained that they decided to work on the it because of their concerns about the growing rates of asthma in the African-American community, and the health hazards that exist in older, deteriorating schools. HSC and parent leaders from the Austin-Wide Parent Network recently received an award from the Illinois Environmental Council for environmental justice work in Austin. (Be sure to check out a poem, Earth Mothers, that organizer Tracy Occomy wrote about the parents involved in the project.)

HSC and parent leaders from the Austin-Wide Parent Network accept Illinois Environmental Council award for environmental justice work in Chicago's Austin neighborhood

Even though much progress has been made here in Chicago and in cities nationwide, there's a long road ahead. As Lisa Jackson makes clear:

"To confront the urgent environmental challenges of the 21st century, we need to make sure that every community sees their stake in this movement.”

Green Cleaning in the Era of H1N1: One School Building Manager's Experience

Today we have a guest blog from Bill Thompson, Director of Facilities for Lockport Township High School

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Editor's Note: Bill Thompson, Director of Facilities for Lockport Township High School, first considered starting a green cleaning program after his janitors became dizzy when using a traditional chemical floor stripper. Since then, the school has become a model for successful green cleaning program implementation and Thompson has worked with HSC to spread the word about green cleaning. Thompson even traveled to Springfield to testify in the state legislature about the benefits of green cleaning as the legislature considered the Green Clean Illinois Schools Act, which now requires green cleaning in all Illinois schools.)

Here Thompson discusses how schools can work against the spread of H1N1 using green cleaning.

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I started implementing a green cleaning program back in 2003, and when H1N1 starting getting a lot of awareness last spring, I realized we needed to adapt our regular cleaning plans. We've made it through MRSA and SARS in the past, so it seems that cleaning for infection control is going to become even more of a standard practice in the future. So far this year, our attendance rate has not dropped from the past years, so we're doing OK. In short, we took a seven-step approach to controlling infections while maintaining a green program. Here's what we are doing.

1. Hand sanitizers. We got serious about providing hand sanitizers in every classroom and in common areas throughout the school.

2. Education. Information was sent out via notices to the kids about washing hands, proper coughing, staying home for 24 hours after a fever ends, eating properly and getting enough sleep.  Notes, announcements, information on the school web page and phone blasts were sent out to parents, students and staff ensuring that they all had this information.

3. A reasonable but aggressive disinfection campaign. We began disinfecting desks every other day (Tuesdays and Thursdays) and then on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays we use an accelerated hydrogen peroxide cleaner, which has sanitizing properties.  We want to disinfect, but not go overboard because we don't want to trade an infection risk for a chemical exposure risk. And sometimes the disinfectant gets a sticky residue if you use it too much without wiping if off.  What’s really new is we are wiping down every desk every night instead of only when it is needed.

4. School buses. We provided all buses with hand sanitizers for the students to use.

5. Proper use of cleaning cloths. We want to minimize cross contamination so we trained and enforced our custodial staff to fold cloths twice and use one side and then the other side and so on.  I encourage them to use as many cloths as necessary.  We have in-house laundry so it is really no big deal keeping the cloths clean.

6. Personal protection. My guys wear gloves, wash their hands regularly and don’t come to work if they are even remotely sick.  This is highly encouraged.

7. Focus on health (rather than shiny floors). We cut down on the burnishing of floors and then dedicate those employee hours to disinfecting and cleaning lockers, door handles, computer labs, and other high- touch areas. The floors are still auto scrubbed every night. Our floors are not as shiny as before, but we decided that to clean for health is more important than having shiny floors.  This was a tough one for me because I like shiny floors, but ultimately it means healthier students and staff.

H1N1 may hit us hard at some point, but so far so good.

Plus: Interested in learning more about cleaning for health? Be sure to check out the infection control section of HSC's free Quick & Easy Guide to Green Cleaning in Schools!

Recess in Schools Means Active Playtime for the Kids Who Need It

By Amanda Chablani, HSC Policy Specialist

As Rochelle recently witnessed, kids (and first ladies) love to run around and be active;  we were glad to see the White House providing such a great, green space where so many young people could play.  While we all need regular exercise, kids especially need dedicated time for unstructured play -– that’s why we think it’s vital that schools schedule daily recess in addition to physical education.

Last October, the first set of federal guidelines on physical activity was released by Health and Human Services.  These guidelines, in addition to setting forth recommendations for daily exercise based on age and ability, provide helpful tips on incorporating exercise into our daily routine.

And for kids, school is a huge part of daily routine.  That’s why the guidelines recommend that schools and communities “provide time for both structured and unstructured physical activity during school and outside of school. Children need time for active play. Through recess, physical activity breaks, physical education classes, after-school programs, and active time with family and friends, youth can learn about physical activity and spend time doing it.”

While it seems obvious that kids need to run around every day, it has become very difficult for many kids to do so. As I learned on a trip to Springfield last spring, recess is no longer available to many kids. But parents here in Chicago are taking action –- Parents United for Healthy Schools collected almost 4,000 signatures in support of re-instituting recess in Chicago Public Schools. And at a federal level, we’re also seeing some movement. Senator Harkin and Congressman Gordon introduced legislation (S.1810 and HR. 3851 respectively) to make sure the HHS guidelines are regularly updated and made available. 

Let’s hope school districts around the country respond by bringing back recess.  

To support this legislation, visit the American College of Sports Medicine’s website.

All-Inclusive Spa Getaway & Culinary Extravaganza at mk: Win Big in the Cooking up Change Raffle!

By Lindsay Muscato, Writer/Communications Specialist

 

Feeling lucky? Don't miss the exciting raffle prizes at Cooking Up Change on Thurs., Oct. 29.

Our first prize is an amazing getaway at Reverie spa retreat with chef Randy Zweiban of Province restaurant preparing a remarkable farm-to-table dinner.  

I recently wrote a profile of Province for Mindful Metropolis, a Chicago magazine that focuses on healthy, eco-conscious living. The perk of any food writing is sampling the cuisine -- and this article quickly became one of my all-time favorite writing assignments. Just thinking about the meal (goat-cheese fondue, braised barbecued lamb and a dessert of salted caramel ice cream over a chocolate brownie) still makes my eyes glaze over.  And afterward, Randy sat with me and discussed his passion for cooking with a nod to Latin American and Spanish influences. 

Raffle prize winners will not only indulge in the mind-bending goodness that Randy cooks up -- they'll also receive all the luxurious pampering of Reverie, a Midwestern day spa with a holistic approach located on more than fifty acres of woodlands in at the southern tip of Lake Michigan.

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Second prize is a dinner for up to 12 people plus an exciting day in the kitchen with the masterminds behind the acclaimed Chicago restaurant mk.  The meal will be a seasonal tasting menu chosen by chef Erik Williams, with wines paired by sommelier Patrick Ewald.

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

You can get your raffle tickets online here, or at Cooking up Change next week! (You don't need to be present at the event to win.)

And for more chances to score great stuff, check out the amazing items and experiences (Oprah tickets! Weekend trips!) featured in our silent auction. Be sure to join us at Cooking Up Change . . . it may be your lucky day!

Happy Halloween – Make it Orange, Black and GREEN!

Today we have a guest blog from Betsy Bigelow Teller, newsletter editor at the Green Schools Initiative

Costumes, candy, and Halloween parties are just ahead. You may not feel you can get away with slipping organic vegetables into the trick-or-treater's bags, but you can definitely slip some eco-consciousness into Halloween this year.

I've got three kids – kids who are full of enthusiastic ideas about the party I should throw, the costumes they want, and the various candies we must offer to trick-or-treaters. But all their great ideas can add up to a mountain of expense and waste (not to mention tooth decay). Instead, why not try the tips and links below to: a) keep it green, b) save money -- and best of all, c) save your sanity and have some fun!

• Choose reusable cloth bags for trick-or-treating this Halloween. Kids can decorate their own bags with fabric markers or paints. For a simpler alternative, re-use a paper grocery bag with handles - your child can decorate it with markers and stickers.

• Host a pre-Halloween costume swap with friends and neighbors; purchase second-hand costumes; or buy costume raw materials at a thrift store and get creative. Avoid vinyl masks and plastic/vinyl teeth. No need for plastic -- Halloween is scary enough as is!

• Find ideas for greening your school events all year long on our website at Green Your School Events 

Check the links below for green and healthy costume, party, and craft ideas that will result in fun without the big expenditures and sugar overload:


Mother Nature Network: Costume Tips and Photos - Cheap, Easy & Green 

About.Com’s Tips for Greening your Halloween 

Green Halloween: Healthy & Earth-friendly Holidays 

StopGlobalWarming.org’s Costume, Trick-or-treating, & Party Tips

Happy (green) Halloween!

Obamas and New Farm-to-School Dollars Help Bring Local Produce to Schools

By Amanda Chablani, HSC Policy Specialist

Although the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act has been postponed, we continue to see a good deal of activity in the school foods arena –- with input not only from legislators, but also from the Obama  administration.

Michelle Obama has been receiving the most attention lately with her appearance at a local farmer’s market. Her activities signify the movement of policy in the administration, extending their farming activities from working with students in the White House garden to broad support of local, sustainable agriculture –- and for making healthy, fresh food available to all Americans.

Also exciting is the recent announcement from Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan that, as part of the Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative, the USDA will form Farm-to-School Tactical Teams to help school administrators buy fresh, local produce. To assist schools in buying local, the USDA will be making $50 million available to support school districts in making major changes in their food procurement processes.

There has been similar legislative action, too. Senator Blanche Lincoln, the new chair of the agriculture committee, has also made some moves in this area by sponsoring the Healthy Food for Healthy Schools Act, which requires the Secretary of Agriculture to compile model food specifications and practices for schools and to research the quality of foods that schools receive as part of the commodities program.

All of these activities point to a new direction for school food. While we may have to wait a bit longer for a strong reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act, we’re already seeing action in the right direction.

Schools Show New Focus on Wellness in NW Indiana

By Cynthia San Miguel, HSC Intern

 

HSC is excited to see our neighbors in Northwest, Ind. making changes in wellness and environmental health in schools, two areas where HSC focuses our work. Lake Central School, located in St. John, Ind. will be exploring new avenues for wellness, according to an article The Times of NW Indiana.

"Developmentally, we know play and exercise is good for primary students," Superintendent Gerald Chabot said. The article goes on to explain:

There are 15 wellness goals that focus on such things as nutrition, exercise and fitness at all grade levels.

The district also is installing at the high school an ultraviolet water purification system that helps to disinfect the water nonchemically.

The wellness plans include a wide range of tactics: a breakfast program is planned for the high school; vending machines will be stocked with healthier options; and 20-ounce beverages will be replaced with 16-ounce beverages.

Students will also benefit from the non-chlorine water purification, as chlorine can react with organisms in the water to create a compound that causes skin and eye irritations.

As a Lake Central alum, I remember smelling like chlorine after pool class. I’m sure the students will appreciate all the new and healthier changes! 

Senator Gillibrand Speaking Up for School Health

By Amanda Chablani

We’re happy to see a new face in Congress, one that not only makes sensible health policy but also recognizes the important role schools play in making sure our kids are healthy.

Kristen Gillibrand, the junior senator from New York who filled Hilary Clinton’s seat earlier this year, has become the newest proponent of children’s health by sponsoring two important school-related bills in the Senate, one of which expands eligibility for free school meals and another that prohibits schools from serving foods that contain trans fats. 

As the new Senator stated, "We can't afford to let our children grow up in a culture of obesity.  If our children are going to have the opportunity to reach their potential, they need a healthy start. The most effective way to address obesity is to provide healthier food and exercise opportunities for our children. We need to be taking real steps to give parents, schools and communities the resources they need to give our children access to fresh fruits and vegetables."

We couldn’t agree more!

Senator Gillibrand, while new to the Senate, has a great track record of supporting children’s issues, especially in the arena of healthcare.  As a U.S. Representative, she supported the extension of Medicare benefits to children of low-income families, and the reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). She has also worked on childhood health issues including autism, juvenile diabetes and child obesity and considers herself a "fierce advocate" for the health of our children.

We're glad to see another proponent of school health – welcome to the club!

Spotlight on Saria Lofton, a School Nurse Working with HSC to Improve Student Wellness

By Cynthia San Miguel, HSC Intern

Saria Lofton, a graduate of HSC's school nurse leadership program and a Chicago Public Schools nurse for three years, shared her unique perspective on the role of today's school nurses at HSC's recent breakfast briefing.

Lofton says she was happy to speak at the HSC event because “there are not a lot of voices for school nurses."

School nurses occupy a unique role in schools and, Lofton adds, "I wanted everyone to know that school nurses are underutilized and we have so much to offer; we are not only trained in child health. We deal with every aspect of health in addition to the physical. We try to help people before things happen."

In her speech, Lofton noted this disconnect between perceptions and the realities of school nursing. She explained:

When I begin to talk with people about school nursing, the first response I usually get is: 'I didn’t know they still had school nurses! Your job must be easy, dealing with paper cuts and nosebleeds!'  I usually cringe when I hear that response and I begin to talk about the diabetic students I see, and the health plans I do, and the special education meetings I attend, and how I am the health expert of the school and yes, a small part of my job is handing out Band-Aids but it is much more than that.  And with the help of HSC, I have found how much wellness can play a part in the work that I do. 

In the future, Lofton says, she has even more hopes to encourage student wellness. "I would like a salad bar at one of the schools I work at and a nutrition program developed by the teachers," she says. "I would also like to start a cooking class."

The school nurse leadership program helped Lofton develop her own gift of leadership, she says: "The main thing I learned is that I have a voice and I need to use it to let everyone know what is going on."

View Saria's speech (below) and find out how Lofton used the acronym "SCHOOL NURSE" to spell out all the ways that the HSC school nurse leadership program helped her realize her potential as a leader.