Healthy Schools Campaign

"Friends Make the Party Fun:" Children Speak up for Wellness

Today we have a guest blog from HSC Board Member Rob Rogers. Rob is the Vice President of School Health Corporation, the nation’s leading provider of medical supplies and equipment to schools and sports teams, a family business he runs with his wife Susan. Rob and Susan’s children attend Marion Jordan school, the school featured in this blog.

What is it that motivates school leaders to adopt meaningful wellness policies?

Even before the 2006 requirement [pdf] that school districts have wellness policies in place to address nutrition education, physical education and school food, some schools were adopting policies regarding classroom snacks and food for celebrations. In some cases, the impetus came from students. 

When the principal of Marion Jordan school in Illinois received a letter signed by hundreds of students, she was determined to see change in her school.

February 22, 2005

Dear Mrs. Petersen:

We would like to see some things changed at Marion Jordan School.  We especially want to see the way parties are done changed.  Here are the reasons we want things changed.

1. We don’t like having our friends have to leave the class when it is time for a party.  Some of the students at Marion Jordan have bad allergies and they can’t even be around some of the food that the parents bring in.  The room moms usually know about the food that can’t be brought in, but some of the other parents still send in food that the kids are allergic to.  Kids have to be careful of what is in the room instead of just having fun. 
2. Even when the food is not in the room, the rest of the kids know who the kids are that have the allergies and they say things like “We can’t have pizza because of you.”  You and the teachers have talked to these kids and they don’t say it anymore, but the kids with the allergies still feel bad.
3. The teachers talk to us about acceptance, compassion, and respect for other peoples differences, but doesn’t this point out their differences.  This makes them feel even more different.  We have learned that sometimes you can give up small things (sacrifice) to make things better for other people.
4. We have kids who are gaining too much weight because we have too many treats at school and then they also go home and have snacks after school.  Teachers talk to us about healthy diets, exercise, and the food pyramid.  The food we have at parties is what we shouldn’t be eating.
5. When we do have food in the room we just sit at our desks and eat.  That isn’t much fun.

You always say if we want things changed it is a good idea to have a few suggestions so here are our suggestions.

1. Have games and fun things to do at parties.
2. Ask us what we want to do at the party.
3. Make sure ALL students can have fun and be at the party.

We want to end by saying:  We don’t need food to have fun.  Being with our friends is what makes a party fun.

There are many good reasons to enact wellness policies at school, and many good reasons to create a “culture of wellness” where children learn about the importance of healthy eating and active lifestyles. But perhaps the most important reason is also the most simple: children’s well-being.

With all the different voices calling for healthy changes at school, it’s refreshing to hear from the children whose health and quality of life are affected so directly.

Junk Food Islands: Transforming Communities to Combat Childhood Obesity

by Guillermo Gomez, HSC Chicago Director

A recent article published in the Robert Wood Johnson Childhood Obesity Digest suggests that one-third of schools in the nation have at least one fast food restaurant or convenience store within walking distance. The researchers found that schools in low-income neighborhoods had more fast food restaurants and convenience stores than those in higher income neighborhoods.

Just as we have food deserts in lower socio-economic neighborhoods, we also have junk food islands with high concentrations of fast food restaurants and convenience stores.

Clearly, this has an impact on health and wellness efforts in school. As the researchers write, "this study suggests that curbing obesity in adolescents will require addressing the food environment surrounding schools as well as within schools."

Healthy Schools Campaign and Parents United for Healthy Schools, a coalition we brought together to make healthy changes at schools in Chicago’s Latino neighborhoods, work to combat childhood obesity in part by creating school wellness teams and working with parents to promote healthy lifestyles at home and at schools.

As this research shows, it appears that if we want to have any significant impact in fighting the obesity epidemic, then we need to address the community environment as well as the school and home environments.  If we start at home by creating a healthy lifestyle and take that message to schools, we also have to look at the community surrounding the school.

In Parents United for Healthy Schools work in Chicago’s Little Village, for example, we began by engaging parents in the healthy lifestyles message. These parents then took the message to schools, forming school wellness teams and advocating for healthy food and increased physical activity.

But the parents also took the message to the community, talking with restaurant owners about using healthier oils (and less of it) and sharing their recipe for healthier tamales with a popular local caterer. They worked with other parents to plant backyard gardens that provide fresh vegetables, started walking clubs, and have essentially made the wellness message part of the fabric of a community.

This creates an environment in which the community is more receptive to healthy changes at school and, importantly, where children receive the same wellness messages from teachers, parents and the adults in their neighborhood.

If we are to succeed in fighting obesity in communities with "junk food islands," then we must develop a strategy to address the junk food – and the messages – that surround our  schools.

Proposed Bottled Water Tax Sends the Wrong Message

by Guillermo Gomez, HSC Chicago Director

Recently, Chicago Alderman George Cardenas (12th Ward) proposed a new tax on bottled water purchased in the city. Although the proposed tax of 10 to 25 cents per bottle may help reduce garbage, its main goal is to help cover a $217 million gap in the city's budget.

Bottled water has come under a lot of fire lately for its environmental impact: The New York Times reported on a trend of feeling guilty for buying bottled water, MSNBC covered a movement of upscale restaurants removing bottled water from the menu, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch described a private school removing water from its vending machines and giving students reusable water bottles instead.  But this would be the first effort to actually tax it.

Now, we love our sturdy reusable water bottles here at HSC. They help us stay hydrated without creating garbage or using natural resources to produce plastic bottles and transport them across the country. They help us save money, too.

At the same time, we're aware of the epidemic levels of obesity that kids today face, and the complications such as diabetes that go with childhood overweight. We're also aware of the billions of dollars spent every year to market sugary soft drinks and nutritionally empty "juice drinks" to kids.

In this climate where sodas, sugary smoothies, fattening coffee drinks and high-calorie artificial fruit drinks seem to be sold on every corner, it's alarming that anyone would consider making it more difficult to choose the healthiest option:  water.

A tax that would discourage the purchase of bottled water seems dangerously close to encouraging the purchase that other drink that comes in a plastic bottle but has the negative consequence of contributing to the obesity epidemic.

It's ideal when schools give kids reusable water bottles and have plenty of working water fountains. But the truth is that in a lot of schools – especially older schools in low-income communities – you can't find a working water fountain to get a sip or refill your bottle.

When kids are faced with a choice of buying bottled water or buying a sugary drink, the last thing they need is a tax to discourage them from drinking water.