Healthy Schools Campaign

Go for the Gold Spotlight: Congratulations to Armour School!

Congratulations to Armour School for achieving the Gold award in the HealthierUS School Challenge! Armour joins public schools across Chicago in meeting the challenge through Go for the Gold, a partnership of Chicago Public Schools and Healthy Schools Campaign that supports schools in meeting high standards for healthy food, physical activity and nutrition education. Armour met the challenge with the support of Healthy Places, an initiative of Healthy Chicago. This post is part of a series celebrating Go for the Gold schools.

At Armour Elementary School, students, parents, teachers and staff are working harder than ever on key areas of health and wellness. Students are moving in classrooms thanks to teachers’ use of “energizers” during classes and advisory periods. Because of a partnership with Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, the school has implemented a comprehensive strength and conditioning program during portions of physical education classes.  Plus students now have access to an expanded sports program for grades two through four thanks to extra funding from Fuel Up to Play 60 and After-School All-Stars.

The school represents an excellent example of community partners, staff, teachers and parents all working together with enthusiasm and purpose. Physical Education teacher Patrick Smith said, “I was impressed with the incredible involvement and the willingness of the staff at Armour to coach teams and play with students all year long.”

Key changes in nutrition education included cooking classes for parents and nutrition classes for students. Parents were asked to to contribute healthy or non-food treats to classroom celebrations.

Smith identified a few other crucial elements of the school’s success: Leadership from their principal, Shelley Cordova, support from the Asian Health Coalition and coordination from school counselor Kelly Wingate.

One of the greatest lessons, however, was learning that the entire school could successfully collaborate to achieve a big goal. “We proved to ourselves that we can complete a program,” Smith said. “Now when other programs or challenges arise, we understand what our strengths are in a given area.”

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Thanks to Armour School for speaking with us about this great accomplishment!

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Armour School’s achievement in Go for the Gold was supported by Healthy Places, an initiative of Healthy Chicago. Healthy Places is a collaborative effort between the Chicago Department of Public Health and the Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Communities Putting Prevention to Work initiative, Cooperative Agreement Number 1U58DP002376‐01. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors/organizers and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Chicago Parents: Support Healthy School Meals as Part of the New CPS School Food Advisory Group

Calling all Chicago parents!

Would you like to help improve the Chicago Public Schools school lunch program? Would you like to help shape what food is available for lunch at your child’s school? Have you wondered who decides what is on the menu and how school lunches are prepared? Are you concerned about the amount of waste generated during the lunch period?

If so, this opportunity is for you. 

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is forming a Parent School Food Advisory Group and is seeking thoughtful parents and guardians to join the group.   A key goal for this group is to involve parents in efforts to provide nutritious and appealing meals in all schools each day.

At Healthy Schools Campaign, we believe it is critical for parents who care about school wellness and healthy school food to lend their voices to the dialogue about the CPS school food program.

We encourage you to apply today to be a part of the CPS Parent School Food Advisory Group.  In terms of time commitment, participants are asked to attend one to three meetings during the school year, and will need to be available to attend the first meeting on Wednesday, January 23 from 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon.

If you are interested in participating, please complete the application online at http://bit.ly/CPS-parent-application.  The application deadline is January 9, 2013. For more information, please contact Nadia Sulayman, CPS School Wellness Specialist, at [email protected].  

Making Student Health and Wellness a Priority in Chicago Public Schools: An Interview with Dr. Stephanie A. Whyte

by Kadesha Thomas, HSC Writer and Researcher

Chicago Public Schools has recently achieved several milestones that support the district’s efforts to prioritize student health. Those milestones include collaborating with the Chicago Department of Public Health to create a new Chief Health Officer position, filled earlier in 2012; reinstating recess at elementary schools throughout the district; officially passing an updated school wellness policy in October 2012 and a healthy snacks and beverages (competitive foods) policy in November 2012; and winning a $4.4 million federal grant to fund school health initiatives.

The leader of the new Office of Student Health and Wellness, Stephanie A. Whyte, MD, MBA, recently sat down with Health Schools Campaign to talk about these milestones and how organizations like HSC helped the district get there.

 

HSC: Why has school health and wellness become such a big priority for Chicago Public Schools?

Dr. Whyte: CPS has realized that student health has implications for academic performance. For example, asthma is one of those illnesses that can have a great impact on student achievement if it’s not controlled. So CPS created the Chief Health Officer role, which was vacant for four years. I joined 9 months ago to lead the new Office of Student Health and Wellness (OSHW). The staff were housed in Nutrition Support Services, Special Education and other departments prior to settling under OSHW. The new Community Transformation Grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will allow us to build the office’s capacity with six additional staff. The department will have grown from eight to 23 since February.

 

HSC: What is the Community Transformation Grant?

Dr. Whyte: In collaboration with the Chicago Department of Public Health, the school district had already launched an initiative called Healthy Chicago Public Schools that focused on nine of the 12 key priorities of Healthy Chicago, the city’s first public health agenda. Of these nine areas focused on student health, three are targeted by the grant: obesity prevention, decreasing tobacco use and violence prevention. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded the district nearly $4.4 million to support outcome measures of: changes in weight, changes in proper nutrition, changes in physical activity, changes in tobacco use, and social/emotional well-being, which, for us, includes bullying and violence prevention.

 

HSC: How did community partners like Healthy Schools Campaign help CPS reach its recent milestones in school health?

Dr. Whyte: The district by itself can’t do it all. We just don’t have the capacity. We can say ‘this is the law of the land,’ but in order to successfully change a culture you must have support from people who are well-versed and informed about the changes. Healthy Schools Campaign has been a subject matter expert on parent engagement, student wellness and health school environments. Before anyone was watching, they were calling attention to these issues. That energy has helped us build school wellness teams and to support the mission of the Office of Student Health and Wellness.

 

HSC: What was HSC’s role in positioning CPS to win the CTG grant?

Dr. Whyte: The partnership with HSC and other organizations, like the Chicago Department of Public Health and the Respiratory Health Association, brought a very specific intelligence to the table and then helped us step back and look at the big picture. That was really critical for the grant. The timing was perfect. We were already updating the district’s wellness policy. Partners like HSC helped us culminate all of our activities for the grant and thus create a well-rounded 24-month strategy.

 

HSC: The specific role HSC plays in implementing the grant’s activities is developing a parent engagement toolkit. Why is parent engagement such an important factor?

Dr. Whyte: I’m from the community and have worked in the community. I’ve seen how a condition like asthma, for example, can have a great impact on a student if it’s not controlled. I’ve seen moms sit and cry because they didn’t know what to do. There were a lot of assumptions that when parents got the inhaler they knew how to use it, when to use it. Then, they were sent home — confused. But having open, honest and engaging dialogue with parents makes a huge difference. That is the environment the district is working hard to create, one in which parents can freely ask questions and we improve on how we react and relate to parents. Parent empowerment is huge!  So if you’re coming to the school to discuss your child’s asthma, you’re an active participant in your child’s care. That’s what I want.

 

HSC: So what do you hope parent engagement looks like after CPS and HSC develop the parent engagement toolkit for schools?

Dr. Whyte: Right now, being a principal is like being in a buffet line with so many options that things are falling off the plate. It’s 100 people saying, ‘All you need to do is this.’ But they can’t do everything. Remember when you would order a computer from Dell? The service guy arrives after it’s delivered, sets it up and you’re ready to go. That’s how I want this toolkit to function. I want any school that uses this toolkit to be full of engaged parents and know what to do when parents want to get involved.

 

HSC: How does the district’s health and wellness strategy compare with the national prevention and health promotion strategy for students?

Dr. Whyte: That’s another conversation to have after we’ve reached our goals. We are the third largest school district in the nation, so I know there are national implications. I know there are people watching. We’ve already heard from other school districts. But right now, it’s important for us to focus on doing a good job for our students. Our focus is on having an impact on improving student health locally.

New Policies Support Wellness in Chicago Public Schools

by Rochelle Davis, HSC President and CEO

This fall, we have seen remarkable milestones for school wellness in Chicago. At the Chicago Board of Education’s meeting in November, the Board passed a Healthy Snack and Beverage Policy. In October, the Board adopted a new school wellness policy. Combined, these two policies represent a significant advance in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) school food and fitness policy.

What do the policies mean for schools? Most fundamentally, they set common-sense standards to support children’s health and thereby set the stage for learning.

The wellness policy requires that schools provide quality P.E., offer more nutrition education, form a wellness team and designate someone to coordinate wellness efforts. In addition, the policy codifies and formalizes at the board level a number of important policies and practices that are already making a difference for kids’ health. For example, the wellness policy formally reinforces the district’s commitment to daily recess at all elementary schools and local procurement as part of the school food program. The policy also provides for strong enforcement in a number of important ways. For example, it includes an indicator on each school’s progress report that tells parents and the public how effectively a school is implementing the wellness policy.

The Healthy Snack and Beverage Policy establishes nutritional standards for food available to students outside the school lunch program, including a la carte items sold in the cafeteria, vending machines and school stores. The policy also requires local schools to plan for promoting healthy school fundraising and healthy classroom celebrations.

Simply put, these changes are very important: they mean healthier learning environments for the district’s 400,000+ students and also send a strong message about the value of wellness to learning.  

How did this come about? This advance builds on years of change at the school level and ongoing work to build support for wellness among parents, teachers, principals and school administrators.

At HSC, we have worked for years with incredible parent advocates, classroom teachers, principals and community members whose efforts to create healthy schools – one school at a time and through policy change at the district level – has truly built a foundation for these advances.

Through our Parents United for Healthy Schools coalition, for example, HSC has engaged hundreds of parents in Chicago’s low-income Latino and African-American communities in training and leadership opportunities focused on school wellness. Those parent advocates, in turn, reached thousands more parents through petitions in support of recess and breakfast in the classroom. Board of Education members supported these policies in the context of strong parent support for health and wellness in schools.

Through Go for the Gold, HSC has worked with CPS to support hundreds of schools in making changes related to healthy eating, physical activity and nutrition education as part of the HealthierUS School Challenge. (Currently, 71 schools have met the challenge, dozens have applications pending and hundreds more have begun the process.) Through this effort, principals have set health-promoting policies at the school level regarding vending, fundraising, healthy classroom celebrations and other issues that are now addressed by district-wide policy.  Just as Board of Education members were able to look to strong support from parents, they were also able to look to principals and teachers for examples of similar policies already succeeding at the school level across the city.

One note for those interested in the specifics of school health and wellness policies is that the Board looked at the issue of healthy classroom celebrations and the question of where decisions about celebrations should be made. At HSC, we believe it is important for schools to send consistent messages and support students’ wellness with healthy celebrations. (For example, celebrating a holiday with a dance party or special crafts instead of unhealthy treats.) We also understand that the issue of healthy celebrations tends to be the most controversial aspect of a school wellness policy, and that it is important to consider where this policy is made. In Chicago, the Board of Education took the approach of having this issue addressed at the school level, by each individual principal or school council. We were happy to see that the board included language HSC suggested to make the default choice a healthy one. With this approach, schools are encouraged to consider the needs of their own community and set a health-promoting school policy regarding celebrations and fundraisers. If the school does not act to set a policy on this, then a default rule will apply: classroom celebrations that include unhealthy food are limited to twice each year and schools may not sell food that does not meet the CPS nutritional guidelines. This is an example of our belief that school policy should make the healthy choice the easy choice.

When HSC began advocating for school wellness in CPS in 2006, the dialogue about healthy eating and physical activity in schools was at a totally different level, both locally and nationally. Here in Chicago, we worked with hundreds of parents to create a rally for healthy schools with the goal of encouraging the district to adopt its first wellness. In the years since then, we have worked with many more amazing parents, teachers, principals and community members who to support health-promoting changes at their neighborhood schools. Now, it is remarkable to see this type of change formalized at the board level so it can help shape healthier futures for the city’s students, now and for years to come.

In pausing to reflect on these advances, I’d like to commend the Board of Education members for their vision in recognizing that healthy students are better prepared to learn and that it is schools’ responsibility to provide environments that support health. I’d also like to commend the parents, teachers, principals and community  members who have worked tirelessly over the years to encourage change and model successful health-promoting policies at the school level, laying the groundwork for this powerful city-wide change.

Congrats to the Student Dancers at Ruiz Elementary, a Go for the Gold School!

We were thrilled to see Ruiz Elementary, a Go for the Gold school, spotlighted recently for a unique achievement. Ruiz students performed a variety of ballroom dances at the 2012 Dance Gala of the Illinois Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (IAHPERD). By hitting the dance floor, Ruiz students had the chance to sparkle for a statewide audience while promoting fun physical activity. Plus, because Ruiz is known both for its committment to wellness and to the arts, their success highlights an important connection between the arts and physical activity. 

Student dancers from Ruiz participated for the second year in a row, and Principal Dana Butler called it "a phenomenal experience."

Read on for more about Ruiz and about the students' experience (including their backstage anecdotes of crashing into tables while practicing!). The article goes on to explain: "Ruiz also is focused on the overall wellness of its students, and has been nationally recognized for its health and nutrition programs, including one of CPS’ original learning kitchens and community gardens. This in addition to the many performance opportunities at the school, which allows its 930 students to show off their talents in music, art, dance and theater."

Here's a video of their 2012 performance: 

Go for the Gold Challenge Spotlight: Congratulations to Libby Elementary School!

Congratulations to Libby Elementary Academy for achieving the Silver award in the HealthierUS School Challenge! Libby joins public schools across Chicago in meeting the challenge through Go for the Gold, a partnership of Chicago Public Schools and Healthy Schools Campaign that supports schools in meeting high standards for healthy food, physical activity and nutrition education. Libby met the challenge with the support of Healthy Places, an initiative of Healthy Chicago. This post is part of a series about Go for the Gold schools.

With their innovative smoothie fundraiser, Libby Elementary made fundraising more creative, healthier and more delicious. Coach and Teacher Ashley Mays  called it an “awesome and successful” way to support the girls’ track team. 

The school made many other positive changes while meeting the Go for the Gold challenge, including implementing nutrition workshops and structured play at recess for kindergarten students and encouraging teachers to integrate physical activity in the classroom. Partnering with Urban Initiatives really made a difference, school leaders said, because the organization was able to gather resources and help the school stay on track with their healthy goals.

Libby Elementary students took part in creative nutrition education workshops as part of Go for the Gold.

By making health and wellness fun, Libby introduced its students to new resources in the community as well. Kindergarten teacher Carla Martinucci said, “We took our classes on a trip to the Bronzeville Children’s Museum for a health and nutrition exhibit.  It was a great trip, and the museum is a valuable community resource!”

A field trip to the Bronzeville Children's Museum reinforced healthy lessons about eating and physical activity.

Thanks to Libby Elementary Academy for sharing the story of its success story with us! Stay posted for profiles of other schools that achieved the HealthierUS School Challenge through Go for the Gold.

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Libby Elementary Academy’s achievement in Go for the Gold was supported by Healthy Places, an initiative of Healthy Chicago. Healthy Places is a collaborative effort between the Chicago Department of Public Health and the Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Communities Putting Prevention to Work initiative, Cooperative Agreement Number 1U58DP002376‐01. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors/organizers and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Guest Blog: Chefs of Tomorrow are Cooking up Change Today

Today we have a special guest blog from David Blackmon, Program Coordinator of Hospitality, Culinary Arts and Agricultural Science in the Chicago Public Schools Office of Pathways to College and Career.

by David Blackmon

On Friday, November 9, teams of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) high school students will present to a crowd of nearly 700 guests just how tasty and healthy school lunch really can be. The students producing the meals are from Culinary Arts Programs in CPS schools, through the CPS Pathways to College and Career initiative. 

Their in-school training, as well as the professional experience of taking part in a culinary competition and presenting food at the benefit, helps prepare students for careers in an increasingly health-conscious culinary world. Opportunities like Cooking up Change and others do a lot to develop the students' self-esteem and instill feelings of accomplishment.

Last year’s competition was filled with culinary students with their heads held high and their chests filled with pride. During the event, guests will have the opportunity to talk with students about their inspiration and learn the ingredients within their tasty culinary delights.

Watching the enjoyment on people's faces as they sample student-made dishes, students feel real pride in the work that they do. Plus, they gain a whole new perspective on what they can do in the future.

And that makes a really big difference.

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Special thanks to David Blackmon for sharing this perspective on Cooking up Change! 

An Exciting Encore for the Winning Meal from Cooking up Change 2011!

Students from CVCA at Cooking up Change 2011

Today in Chicago Public Schools, students are enjoying the winning meal from last year's Cooking up Change Chicago healthy cooking contest. Designed by the student chefs from Chicago Vocational Career Academy (CVCA), the meal includes freshly baked chicken and a leafy greens-and-cabbage salad (called "Cousins"). It's a great reminder that delicious, healthy meals can be winners in the lunchroom year-round. 

Another group of student chefs will soon jump into the competition at Cooking up Change 2012. What can they expect to learn from the event? The 2011 CVCA team shared their observations with us:

On teamwork:
"We just complemented each other. We listened to each other and didn't talk over each other." -- Tatiana, student chef

On what it means to win:
"When they said our name, I was crying. It just felt so good. . . [I knew] that would make our school look good. We just won a culinary competition: we are accomplishing something." -- Jerome, student chef

On big lessons:
"I learned teamwork. I learned to work together, work hard, stay focused." -- Diamonte, student chef

With this year's Cooking up Change just around the corner, we couldn't be more excited for this encore from last year's competition to be served in CPS. It's a delicious, healthy meal that definitely deserves to be on the table again and again.

Soon we'll have another round of winners to celebrate! 

To learn more or purchase tickets for this year's culinary contest and benefit on November 9, visit www.cookingupchange.org.

Local Produce, Apsiring Chefs: Spotlight on Cooking up Change Sponsor Cristina Foods

Here at HSC, we love hearing about great farm-to-school programs -- including the sizeable farm-to-school program that serves Chicago Public Schools (CPS) here in our own backyard. That's why we're thrilled that this year's group of generous sponsors for Cooking up Change includes Cristina Foods, a distribution partner of Chartwells-Thompson Hospitality, the company that provides food service to CPS. Cristina Foods provides produce -- including locally-grown fruits and vegetables -- for school meals in Chicago Public Schools, and the company has been a vital part of the expansion of the farm-to-school program in CPS. In fact, last year, CPS served more than $2 million worth of local produce in school meals. (You can read more about the CPS farm to school program here.)

Cesar Dovalina, president of Cristina Foods, says that Cooking up Change "is really like being in the restaurant business. It's fast-paced, you have your customers right there, and you're trying to please them. . . you've got to work on service and presentation." Cristina Foods works closely with the restaurant industry, and so Dovalina muses, "maybe they'll be customers of mine someday."

He adds, "It's also a big lesson in money management. The restrictions are really the thing of it. You get your list of ingredients and prices, and it's like -- hey, make something out of this."

He gives a tip of the hat to Chartwells-Thompson for pushing vendors such as Cristina Foods to source locally. He says that the company is excited about all the innovations in CPS foods -- particularly the chicken raised without antibiotics on Amish farms in Indiana. (So are we!) 

Dovalina also says that he's very glad to see culinary programs in CPS schools. He says: "Chicago is really the restaurant capital, more and more. These kids will be out in that world someday. And they'll be able to compete."

HSC believes in farm-to-school, and Cristina Foods believes in Cooking up Change! It's a great synergy. Thanks to Cesar Dovalina for speaking with us!

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Plus: Learn more about Cooking up Change and purchase tickets for the November 9 flagship Chicago cooking contest and benefit online at www.cookingupchange.org.

HSC Urges Chicago Board of Education to Support Student Health and Learning with New Wellness Policy

Update, Oct. 24 -- Great news! Today, the Chicago Board of Education passed the new wellness policy that we discussed in this post! You can learn more about the new policy here.

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HSC urges the Chicago Board of Education to adopt a new school wellness policy being proposed at the Board’s October 24 meeting. This proposed policy builds on years of experience making changes to promote student health and wellness in Chicago Public Schools (CPS), particularly the district’s decision to support schools in meeting the high standards for healthy eating and physical activity set by the HealthierUS School Challenge. This policy is especially critical in light of the high rates of obesity and related illness that Chicago children face, and the increasing body of research connecting healthy eating and physical activity with academic success.

“Healthy students are better prepared to learn. By adopting policies that support student wellness, Chicago Public Schools has the opportunity to support not only children’s health but their learning as well,” said Rochelle Davis, President and CEO of Healthy Schools Campaign. “Creating health-promoting environments in schools is an important goal with practical solutions that we’ve seen work in Chicago. Simply put, the type of practical points proposed in this policy help schools make the healthy choice the easy choice. This is both a practical policy and one that positions CPS as a leader nationally in creating policy that supports health and academic success.”

The proposed wellness policy addresses nutrition education, physical activity, physical education and other elements of school wellness. Two years ago, CPS partnered with Healthy Schools Campaign and others to support schools in meeting the health-promoting standards of the HealthierUS School Challenge. Through this initiative, called Go for the Gold, more than 100 schools have achieved national recognition for school wellness practices or are well on their way to doing so. These schools have figured out how to incorporate nutrition education in the curriculum, provide more physical education classes, bring back recess and more.  

The proposed policy builds on this success by positioning CPS to support all schools in the district in making these practical changes for students’ health. The updated policy would create the infrastructure and support at the district level to ensure that schools are able to maintain these gains and more schools are able to benefit from improved wellness.

Over the last 15 years, studies have increasingly connected physical activity and healthy eating with schools’ core goals of learning and academic success. "An abundance of data now indicates that those children who are more physically active do better in school,” said Sarah Buck, Ph.D., Associate Professor at Chicago State University.  “Their test scores are higher, they are more able to stay on task, and they have higher self-esteem.”

The health-promoting changes outlined in the proposed policy have met with positive responses from parents when put into practice in schools.  Karina Macedo, mother of two children attending Greene elementary school located in the McKinley Park neighborhood, said, “As a mom, I know the importance of physical activity to my sons’ academic performance. They are better able to learn when they are re-energized with breaks like recess. That’s why I have been working with our school wellness team to create more opportunities for physical activity. The new CPS Wellness Policy would help advance parents’ efforts to make the school day healthier.”

Lilliana Hernandez, whose children attend Eli Whitney school, added, “After working with my school to implement more opportunities for nutrition education, I’m happy to see that the healthy habits I teach them at home are being reinforced at school. I urge CPS to continue making our children’s health a priority.”  

Given the powerful role of school environments in shaping children’s long-term health, Chicago’s medical community has also voiced support for the updated policy.

“The Illinois Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics is pleased that CPS and the Board continue to recognize the significant relationship between student health and academic achievement, and commend their efforts to make substantial improvements to its wellness policies that will remove health-related barriers to learning,” said Scott Allen, MS, Executive Director,  Illinois Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics.

To view the proposed CPS wellness policy, see page 19 of the Board of Education packet online at http://bit.ly/CPSOct24. To learn more or connect with parents, teachers and principals supporting wellness in Chicago Public Schools, contact Mark Bishop at 312-419-1810 or [email protected].

Recess: "A Treat Kids Never Tire Of"

We truly believe in the proven benefits of recess: kids who exercise during recess are more alert in the classroom and are healthier overall. In fact, sometimes students who seem to have the most trouble focusing and completing assignments may need recess the most. That's why one school makes it a policy to use recess as a reward, never as a punishment.

Deborah Reese, principal at Hitch School in Chicago, spoke to us about her school's philosophy towards recess. There, teachers are encouraged to add extra recess as an incentive instead of taking it away as a punishment. She said that overall, "we found our discipline problems going down when we focused on being less punitive and more rewarding."

Principal Reese gave a recent example of how this policy worked:

"Kids in the upper grades were spiraling out of control in the hallways between classes.  [Teachers] wanted to meet with us because they wanted permission to 'take away recess.'  My assistant principal, Diane Kieres, said that rather than take it away, she would add an extra recess when she 'caught' classes being appropriate.  On the second day, she named a classroom that was going to get the extra recess, and doubled the reward by telling the teacher that she (Diane) would supervise it, and the teacher would get a few minutes to herself.  Word spread – EXTRA RECESS!"

Her other advice?

"If students misbehave while they are at recess, we give them a 2- to 5-minute timeout.  Then we let them rejoin the play.  Kids don’t like having to stand next to the teacher for 5 minutes and watch the others having fun –- this is more effective than sending them to another classroom to work."

In short, she said, recess is "a treat kids never tire of."

Special thanks to Principal Reese for sharing her school's success story with us!

Plus: For more recess success stories and tips, check out the physical activity section of the Go for the Gold website!

Go for The Gold: “Our Health Creates Who We Are and Our Success”

As part of our Go for the Gold celebration, students created artwork and wrote essays about health and wellness at their school.

In her essay, South Loop Elementary eighth grader Mariama Diallo discusses the role school wellness plays in shaping healthy habits and a better future. She takes pride in her healthy school community.

Diallo writes:

For starters, South Loop provides healthy school meals for its 800 students. Daily, a free breakfast is provided to students and we are given the opportunity to choose from a hot  or a cold breakfast. This way, students that were rapidly leaving their homes still have a chance to enjoy the most important meal of the day. . . Next, not only do we have physical education, health, and other sports programs, but we also provide recess. Those extra twenty minutes of freedom mean a lot to children; it provides us with time to run around and exercise daily. This is strongly important in a child and adult’s perspective because it helps engage children into activity and participating and exercising with others. Nothing is possibly healthier than providing kids with the environment’s fresh air and plants.

All in all, when it comes to health, we children and adults should strive in pursuing a healthy lifestyle. Our health creates who we are and our success. We have the choice to be healthy.

South Loop was one of 37 Chicago schools recognized for meeting the high standards of the HealthierUS School Challenge in spring 2012. The K-8 school received the Bronze Award.

Stay posted for more student art and essays from this celebration!

Fit to Learn Graduates Share Tips for School Health and Wellness

Earlier this summer, a small group of Chicago teachers completed HSC’s Fit to Learn program. The professional development program focused on practical approaches to making health and wellness a regular part of the classroom experience.

Amy Andrews, a third grade teacher at Abraham Lincoln Elementary School, found the Fit to Learn workshops to be helpful in building lessons and sharing resources with her students. After participating in the program, Andrews created a “Tasty Tuesday” program to incorporate nutrition education into her classroom. She also provided opportunities for physical activity in her classroom and urged students to commit to physical activity.

When Andrews created opportunities for movement, she observed more focused students. “The kids said during ISAT, [those mind and body breaks] really helped them. It was the first time I really heard their point of view. They feel calmer and more confident,” she said.

Graduates explained that their experience showed them how important it is to engage parents and fellow educators in fostering a culture of wellness throughout the school. “You have to get other teachers on board,” said John T. McCutcheon Elementary School teacher Karen Jasinski. “You also want parents on board. You need both, [because] we set the example. If we’re telling them not to have hot chips and pop and then they see us with pop, then it’s not going to be effective.” To make this connection, Jasinski also invited nutritionists to facilitate six popular parent workshops to demonstrate how to make home meals healthier.

We look forward to hearing more from Fit to Learn alums in the coming school year. Kudos to all the Fit to Learn graduates!

Go for the Gold: "Helping Us Be the Best Every Day"

As part of our Go for the Gold celebration, students created artwork and wrote essays about health and wellness at their school.

In this essay, Chancez Sims, a seventh-grade student at Morton School of Excellence, talks about the importance of being healthy and what his school does to promote wellness.

He writes:

My school, Morton School of Excellence, helps me to be healthy in ways like providing healthy meals with fruits and vegetables, and a fitness center. I also have good role models of eating healthy and living healthy with healthy choices. They also have healthy snacks like raisins and sunflower seeds which provide energy so we can stay active and be better thinkers. We also have many sports teams to choose from to keep us moving on a daily basis. When we do sports, we learn to warm up before we start so we don’t injure any muscles or bones. . . My school monitors what we eat which is good, there is no junk food being sold there and our cafeteria is giving us more healthy food options. It is not all about the food. We also do exercises and have recess. At recess we go to the playground and work every part of our bodies. In our school the teachers exercise our minds so that we can be good thinkers and successful.

Morton School of Excellence was one of 37 Chicago schools recognized for meeting the high standards of the HealthierUS School Challenge in spring 2012. Morton received the Gold Award.

Kudos, Chancez! We’re looking forward to sharing more youth voices.

Stay posted for more student art and essays from this celebration!

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To learn more about Go for the Gold, visit www.goforthegoldCPS.org.

2012 Parent Leadership Institute!

Parent leaders celebrate their school's achievement of the HealthierUS School Challenge

This week and next week, more than 50 parent leaders from Chicago's Latino and African-American communities are gathering for the sixth annual Parent Leadership Institute from Parents United for Healthy Schools/Padres Unidos para Escuelas Saludables.

The institute, shaped each year by parent voices and the changing landscape of school wellness in Chicago and across the nation, equips parents with the knowledge and skills to make change for wellness in schools. This includes background knowledge about the issues -- such as information about the connection between health and learning, and about health disparities in Chicago communities -- as well as the skills involved in making change. These skills focus on creating and leading wellness teams, which provide a vehicle for parents to have a voice in decisions that shape food and fitness at school. They also focus on school planning and reporting efforts that engage parents and community in setting school priorities -- such as a focus on increasing opportunities for physical activity.

This year, parents are also gaining skills to connect their schools with Go for the Gold, HSC's partnership with Chicago Public Schools to support schools in meeting the HealthierUS School Challenge. To follow up on parent interest in the recent move by CPS to serve chicken raised without antibiotics on Amish farms in nearby Indiana, the 2012 institute also includes conversation about where and how food is grown and raised.

Stay posted for blogs next week focused on the remarkable work of Parents United for Healthy Schools.

In the meantime, check out this short video on why participants get involved with Parents United:

To learn more about Parents United, check out more spotlights on HSC's blog!

Go for the Gold: Yoga is Fun

As part of our Go for the Gold celebration, students created artwork and wrote essays about health and wellness at their school.

Ashburn Community Elementary School student art work

This artwork comes from an Ashburn Community Elementary School student.

Not only is yoga fun, but it is also an excellent way to “cool down” your class. Teachers in HSC’s Fit to Learn program have also seen the benefits of incorporating yoga in the classroom as it helps students get focused and ready to learn. Yoga is also good for your heart!

Ashburn Community Elementary School was one of 37 schools recognized for meeting the high standards of the HealthierUS School Challenge. Ashburn received the Silver Award.

Kudos! Stay posted for more student art from this celebration!
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To learn more about Go for the Gold, please visit www.goforthegoldCPS.org.

A Look Inside: A Principal’s Perspective on School Wellness

By Brittany Wright, HSC media + outreach specialist

We’ve recently shared how the wellness team at Nathanael Greene Elementary created an engaging event and serves as a resource for the school community. One aspect of the parent-driven group’s success is their collaboration with the school’s administration.

Principal Michael Heidkamp has a hands-on approach to school wellness. He frequently attends the health and wellness committee meetings and supports parents in bringing resources to Greene Elementary.

The former teacher has served as a Chicago Public School principal for four years. “I’ve never lost the teacher’s perspective, which is having the privilege to go into a classroom every day and be a part of the learning experience and getting to know the students on a level that few people have the opportunity to do over a year,” said Heidkamp.

We spoke with Principal Heidkamp to learn how wellness and parent engagement work at the southwest Chicago school.

What role does wellness play in student success?

One of the things we attempt to do is broaden the conversation about student success beyond just test scores. When you’re talking about student success, you’re really talking about lifestyle choices.

Reading workshops are as much about the disposition of readers as they are about any skill or content knowledge. If you can get the disposition level then you’re talking about something that kids are going to carry with them for the rest of their lives -- not just something unloaded on a particular test. It’s the same thing with health and wellness, this idea of supporting students to really develop a lifestyle that makes living healthy normal and just what you do. Through afterschool programming and the health fair, we’re creating a “new normal” of what they should expect of themselves -- getting them to see beyond the immediate satisfaction of eating fries or chips to broadening that vision beyond the immediate moment. That’s been a big part of our push here. We do afterschool programming, we have yoga , karate, running club, folkloric dance, soccer with [community partners] Urban Initiatives, Girls in the Game, Girls on the Run, and regular seasonal sports programming.

All of that is a part of a bigger integrated and comprehensive approach to really creating a healthy lifestyle for our students.

How did Greene initially take an active role in promoting health and wellness?

It was very parent-driven. Karena Macedo [a parent leader], in conjunction with the previous administration, had worked very hard in getting the school certified by the HealthierUS School Challenge with the Gold of distinction. She actually went to the White House to receive the award for the school.

One of the issues is that as the principal, sometimes you can get very myopic in the sense that you're getting press for test scores and short term gains and short term results. I think it’s nice to have a strong group of parents that are constantly reminding you that their child’s experience is so much more than that.

What we’re about is educating the child to lead a responsible life. Part of that is respecting their intellectual gifts and what they can do as students, but also this other piece of understanding that how you treat yourself and how you view yourself and the choices you make with regard to your health are equally as important and deserve that same level of instruction and support. As a parent, it's great that my kid is doing well on a particular assessment, but what kind of person is my child becoming? What kind of values are they carrying? Those are the kinds of things that are less apparent when you do the number crunching off of the standardized test. It’s been really nice to have our parents out on the forefront saying there are other things we value.

Prinicpal Heidkamp and parents leaders discuss school wellness

How have health and wellness impacted the school community?

In terms of participation -- we’ve got close to 150 students that are involved in some sort of extracurricular sports activity. Last year, there weren’t these offerings. A good 25 percent of our student body is engaged in some sort of exercise in addition to a strong physical education program. The health and wellness committee organized the health night and we had over 300 people attend. That was all organized by the health and wellness committee -- that didn’t exist last year. They really put together a terrific event.

Kids are making the choice to participate, adults are making the choice to participate and parents are making the choice to take on the leadership role in increasing the resources that are available and really challenging the culture.

What can parents do to make health and wellness a priority in school?

You don’t need to wait for everyone to show up to a meeting. You can start a meeting with three people. If you already have a sense of what the needs are, you can send out a survey to parents. Your role and that of the entire of group will increase tremendously. You can start pulling people in to sponsor activities. People will start to come, more and more people are going to want to be a part of that.

In fact, as long as you have a good sense of the community, you can start reaching out for those resources. Build your group and your committee based on the roll-out of those different resources to get your name and mission out there. That is a very powerful way to attract other parents.

Kudos to Nathanael Greene Elementary parents, staff, and administrators on moving school wellness forward! Keep up the great work!

Go for the Gold Campaign Recognizes Chicago Schools’ Commitment to Nutrition and Fitness

We are pleased to announce that 37 CPS schools will be recognized today for meeting high standards for student health and wellness through Go for the Gold! Twenty-eight of the schools have been certified for meeting USDA standards for healthy food, fitness, and nutrition education set by the HealthierUS School Challenge. Certification for another nine CPS schools is pending.  In the Midwest, this is the largest number of schools in one district to achieve the HealthierUS School Challenge.

Go for the Gold is a partnership of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and Healthy Schools Campaign with the USDA’s Midwest Region and the Illinois State Board of Education Department of Nutrition. The HealthierUS School Challenge is the program that First Lady Michelle Obama is urging schools to pursue. The 37 schools being recognized join 19 CPS schools that earned Go for the Gold certification last year.

Since its launch in August 2010, Go for the Gold has connected Chicago Public Schools with health and wellness resources ranging from nutrition education initiatives to sports and physical activity programs. The challenge includes standards for school food, physical activity, physical education and nutrition education. The campaign builds on the school food program that CPS rolled out for the 2010-11 school year, which meets and in many cases exceeds the gold standard of the HealthierUS School Challenge.

“Go for the Gold brings together parents, school leaders, chefs, school nurses, and many others to support schools in providing a healthy environment for Chicago children,” said Rochelle Davis, President and CEO of Healthy Schools Campaign.

The following schools will be recognized for all their hard work in prioritizing health and wellness:

Bronze Award

• Andrew Jackson Elementary Language Academy
• Edgar Allan Poe Classical School
• Gale Math and Science
• John C. Coonley Elementary School
• Jonathan Burr Elementary School
• LaSalle Language Academy
• Skinner North Classical School*
• South Loop Elementary
• Stone Elementary Scholastic Academy

Silver Award

• Adlai E. Stevenson Elementary School
• Arthur A. Libby Elementary School
• Ashburn Community Elementary School
• Bradwell School of Excellence
• Charles R Darwin Elementary School
• Edward Everett Elementary School
• Edward White Career Academy*
• Elizabeth Peabody Elementary School
• Florence Nightingale Elementary School*
• Friedrich Ludwig Jahn Elementary School
• George Washington Elementary School*
• Louis Pasteur Elementary School
• Nathan S. Davis Elementary
• Richard J. Daley Elementary Academy
• Thomas Chalmers Specialty  Elementary School*
• Wendell Smith Elementary School*
• William T. Sherman Elementary School*

Gold Award

• Bronzeville Lighthouse Charter School
• Charles Hammond Elementary School*
• Charles W. Earle Elementary School
• Douglas Taylor Elementary School
• Fredric Chopin Elementary School
• Jackie Robinson Elementary School
• Johnnie Colemon Elementary Academy*
• Johnson School of Excellence
• Matthew A. Henson Elementary School
• Miriam G. Canter Middle School
• Morton School of Excellence

*Pending final approval by USDA national headquarters

“The Chicago Public Schools is proud of all of the schools being recognized today for meeting the rigorous challenge of becoming certified in the HealthierUS School Challenge,” said Chicago Public Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard. “Schools are critical places to make healthy eating and physical activity easy, fun, and routine, and the health of our students is integral to academic success.  These schools have demonstrated their commitment to student health by undertaking the admirable and demanding task of meeting the requirements of the HealthierUS School Challenge.” 

Go for the Gold aligns with city-wide and national efforts to emphasize wellness and prevention. This year Go for the Gold has received support from an obesity prevention project called Healthy Places, a joint effort of the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) and the Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children (CLOCC).  Both CPS and HSC are lead partners with Healthy Places, working to institute program and policy change and increase organizational capacity to better promote health and wellness for children across the district. Also through Healthy Places, four community-based organizations are supporting over a dozen schools in neighborhoods of high need and health disparity across Chicago to meet the criteria of the HealthierUS School Challenge and participate in Go for the Gold.

 “I commend these schools for their accomplishment as this is a testimony to our city’s commitment to addressing a growing obesity rate amongst our youth,” said Dr. Bechara Choucair, CDPH Commissioner. “Our public health agenda, Healthy Chicago, identifies obesity prevention as one of the top health priorities in Chicago. These schools will set the bar for other schools and organizations around the city and will also have a direct health benefit on their students. ”

The celebration represents a milestone, as this is the largest number of schools in one district in the Midwest to meet the standards of the HealthierUS School Challenge.

“We commend Chicago Public Schools for their strong commitment toward earning certification under the HealthierUS School Challenge,’’ said Illinois State Board of Education Member Dr. Vinni Hall. “Studies have repeatedly proven that good nutrition and physical activity enhance and improve learning and academic performance. These schools have taken important steps toward helping students to understand that connection and develop successful lifelong habits.’’

“The Chicago Public Schools’ Go for the Gold campaign aims to increase the number of HealthierUS School Challenge schools, a key goal of USDA and the First Lady’s Lets Move! initiative. By meeting standards of excellence in school nutrition and physical activity, these schools are ensuring a brighter and healthier future for our nation’s young people,” said USDA Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services Kevin Concannon.

The celebration includes a health fair, live entertainment and activities for students. A team of mascots including Benny the Bull, mascot of the Chicago Bulls and Power Panther, mascot for the USDA, will be on hand to engage students in the celebration.  More than 200 parents, students, teachers, and advocates are expected to be in attendance.

Speakers include Jean-Claude Brizard, Chicago Public Schools CEO; Rochelle Davis, Healthy Schools Campaign President and CEO; Dr. Vinni Hall, Illinois State Board of Education Member; Annie Lionberger, Chicago Public Schools Manager of Health and Wellness Promotion; Audrey Rowe, Administrator, USDA Food and Nutrition Service; Tara Safonia Shelton, South Loop Elementary School Principal; Dr. Stephanie Whyte, Chicago Public Schools Chief Medical Officer; South Loop Elementary School students and more than 200 parents, teachers, and students from the schools being recognized. 

Go for the Gold is supported by a Civic and Business advisory committee chaired by Karen Atwood, president of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, and Terry Mazany, president and CEO of Chicago Community Trust.

To learn more about Go for the Gold, please visit www.goforthegoldCPS.org.

Students Tour Farm, Prepare to Share Lessons with Congress about Chicken Raised without Antibiotics

By Brittany Wright, HSC media and outreach specialist

CVCA students at Miller Poultry

Last week, I accompanied a group of Chicago Vocational Career Academy (CVCA) culinary students, including the winning team from the Cooking up Change Chicago healthy cooking contest, to Miller Amish Poultry Farm.

The CVCA team won top honors at Cooking up Change Chicago with a lunch featuring freshly-baked chicken drumsticks; that chicken was raised without antibiotics on Miller Farms. Students in Cooking up Change are limited to ingredients that school dining managers are able to order for school lunch and this year for the first time, that list includes fresh chicken raised without antibiotics. Chicago Public Schools recently began serving this chicken as part of its lunch program.  You can learn more about the freshly-baked chicken in Chicago schools here.

On the tour, the students had the chance to meet Amish farmers and learn how Miller raises chickens without antibiotics in a cage-free, humane environment. Mark Tilbury and Kerri McClimen of The Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming  explained the importance of antibiotic-free food production. To learn more about the use of antibiotics in food production and its connection to health, check out this excellent overview from Pew. (For another great overview of the issue that also discusses the decision by CPS to begin serving chicken raised without the use of antibiotics, check out this article in Wired science blog.)

CVCA student Kaliah explained, “This field trip has given me a chance to understand how chicken is produced.” Classmate Jerome Sims said he’d learned, “when the animal is healthier, the meat will be better.”

After the students’ hands-on experience with chickens, we headed over to the processing plant and learned about the different measures to ensure food is safe for consumption as it is prepped for distribution throughout the Midwest to customers including Whole Foods, Chipotle, a variety of regional grocery stores, and recently Chicago Public Schools.

After the trip, Cooking up Change teammate Ciara Lawson explained, “It has given me more background information on how healthy [antibiotic-free chicken] really is. It can change a person’s perspective.” Her teammate Jerome Sims added “I feel great because we used natural and healthy chicken” in the winning Cooking up Change lunch. Student chef Diamonte said, “I think this trip really gave us a better understanding on what we are cooking and on what happens to the food.”

Now, the CVCA students will bring these lessons to Congress! On May 10, the students will take part in a Congressional briefing on serving food raised without antibiotics in school lunch. That day, the lunch they created will be served for lunch the House of Representatives cafeteria! Take a moment to send a letter inviting your senators and representative to attend the briefing and try the students’ award-winning school lunch!



Later in May, the students will be back in Washington, D.C. to compete against teams from across the country in the Cooking up Change national finals. Stay posted for updates!

 

Sandoval School Assistant Principal Shares the Benefits of Breakfast in the Classroom

We recently sat down with assistant principal Caridid Garcia of Socorro Sandoval School, one of the early adopters of the Breakfast in the Classroom program, to gain insight on how the program works at the southwest Chicago school.

Socorro Sandoval School provides breakfast for nearly 1,200 students each day. The multi-track school  adopted the program in 2009 and rolled out the program after a few months of planning. 

Garcia credits the program's success and smooth transition to staff communication and collaboration. “Now it just flows smoothly," she said. "Our kids know. Kids, after a week of doing something, they just catch on." Check out the video below for assistant principal Garcia's reflections on the benefits that Breakfast in the Classroom has brought to Sandoval School.

 

Many thanks to assistant principal Caridid Garcia for sharing her story!

Plus! Visit www.BreakfastMatters.org to learn about the Breakfast in the Classroom initiative in Chicago.