533 Policy - Wellness | School Board Policies & Procedures

533 Policy - Wellness

POLICY SERIES: Students
SUBJECT: Wellness
BOARD APPROVED: February 2013, June 2017, December 2019, June 2021
REVISION DATE: June 2021, May 2024

533 Wellness Printable PDF

533 Wellness

PURPOSE
The purpose of this policy is to articulate the Board’s commitment to wellness as it relates to food, nutrition and physical activity, to set forth methods that promote student and staff wellness, and prevent and reduce childhood obesity. This policy is also designed to assure that school meals and other food and beverages sold and otherwise made available at school during the school day are consistent with applicable local, state, and federal standards.
GENERAL STATEMENT OF POLICY
1. The Board recognizes that nutrition promotion and education, physical activity, and other school-based activities that promote student wellness are essential components of the educational process and that good health fosters student attendance and learning.
2. The school environment should promote students’ health, well-being, and ability to learn by encouraging healthy eating and physical activity.
3. The District encourages the involvement of parents/guardians, students, food service personnel, teachers, school health professionals, the Board, administrators, and the general public in the development, implementation, and periodic review and update of the District’s wellness policy.
4. Children need access to healthy foods and opportunities to be physically active in order to grow, learn, and thrive.
5. All students in grades K-12 will have opportunities, support, and encouragement to be physically active on a regular basis.
6. Qualified food service personnel will provide students with access to a variety of affordable, nutritious, and appealing foods that meet the health and nutrition needs of students and try to accommodate the religious, ethnic, and cultural diversity of the student body in meal planning; and will provide clean, safe, and pleasant settings and adequate time for students to eat.
7. School staff are encouraged and supported to practice healthy nutrition and physical activity behaviors in and out of school;
8. The District establishes and maintains oversight, implementation, communication and monitoring of the policy and its established goals and objectives.
WELLNESS GOALS
1. Nutrition Promotion and Education
  1. The District will encourage and support healthy eating by students and engage in nutrition promotion and education that is:
    1. part of a comprehensive program designed to provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to promote and protect their health;
    2. part of health education classes, as well as classroom instruction in subjects such as math, science, language arts, social sciences, and elective subjects, where appropriate; and
    3. enjoyable, developmentally appropriate and culturally relevant wellness and participatory activities, such as contests, promotions, taste testing, gardening and community-based instruction as teaching tools.
  2. The District will encourage all students to make age appropriate, healthy selections of foods and beverages, including those sold individually outside the reimbursable school meal programs, such as through a la carte/snack lines, fundraising events, concession stands, and student stores.
2. Physical Activity
  1. Students need opportunities for physical activity and to fully embrace regular physical activity as a personal behavior. Toward that end, health and physical education will reinforce the knowledge and self-management skills needed to maintain a healthy lifestyle and reduce sedentary activities;
  2. Opportunities for physical activity will be incorporated into other subject lessons, where appropriate; and
  3. Schools will not withhold or use physical activity as a consequence or punishment.
  4. Classroom teachers will provide short physical activity breaks between lessons or classes, as appropriate.
3. Communications with Parents/Guardians
  1. The District recognizes that parents and guardians have a primary role in promoting their children’s health and well-being.
  2. The District will support parents’/guardians’ efforts to provide a healthy diet and daily physical activity for their children.
  3. The District encourages parents/guardians to pack healthy lunches and snacks and refrain from including beverages and foods without nutritional value.
  4. The District will provide information about physical education and other school-based physical activity opportunities and will support parents’/guardians’ efforts to provide their children with opportunities to be physically active outside of school.
STANDARDS AND NUTRITION GUIDELINES
1. School Meals
  1. The District will provide healthy and safe school meal programs, including the USDA School Breakfast Program, that comply with all applicable federal, state, and local laws, rules, and regulations.
  2. Food service personnel will provide students with access to a variety of affordable, nutritious, and appealing foods that meet the health and nutrition needs of students.
  3. Food service personnel will try to accommodate the religious, ethnic, and cultural diversity of the student body in meal planning.
  4. Food service personnel will take every measure to ensure that student access to foods and beverages meets or exceeds all applicable federal, state, and local laws, rules, and regulations and that reimbursable school meals meet USDA nutrition standards.
  5. Food service personnel will adhere to all applicable federal, state, and local food safety and security guidelines.
  6. The District has implemented plans to eliminate any social stigma attached to, and prevent the overt identification of, students who are eligible for free and reduced-price school meals.
  7. The District will provide students access to hand washing or hand sanitizing before they eat meals or snacks.
  8. The District will provide students with sufficient time to eat school meals and will schedule meal periods at appropriate times during the school day.
  9. The District will discourage tutoring, club, or organizational meetings or activities during mealtimes unless students may eat during such activities.
  10. To promote hydration, free, safe, unflavored drinking water will be available to all students throughout the school day and throughout every school campus. The District will make drinking water available near cafeterias and accessible during mealtimes. Students will be allowed to bring and carry (approved) water bottles filled with only water with them throughout the day.
  11. The District will promote healthy food and beverage choices using the following marketing and merchandising techniques:
    1. Whole fruit options are available.
    2. Sliced or cut fruit is available daily.
    3. Daily fruit and vegetable options are displayed in a location in the line of sight and reach of students.
    4. All staff members, especially those serving, have been trained to politely prompt students to select and consume the daily vegetable options with their meal.
    5. White milk is available with other beverages in all coolers.
    6. Alternative entrée options are highlighted on posters or signs within all service and dining areas.
    7. A reimbursable meal can be created in any service area available to students (e.g., salad bars, snack rooms, etc.).
    8. Student surveys and taste testing opportunities are used to inform menu development, dining space decor and promotional ideas.
    9. Daily online announcements are used to promote and market menu options.
2. School Food Service Program/Personnel
  1. The District shall designate an appropriate person to be responsible for the school district’s food service program, whose duties shall include the creation of nutrition guidelines and procedures for the selection of foods and beverages made available on campus to ensure food and beverage choices are consistent with current USDA guidelines.
  2. As part of the District’s responsibility to operate a food service program, the District will provide continuing professional development for all food service personnel.
3. Competitive Foods and Beverages
  1. All foods and beverages sold at school to students, outside of reimbursable meals, are considered “competitive foods.” Competitive foods include items sold a la carte in the cafeteria, school stores, and for in-school fundraisers.
  2. All competitive foods sold during the school day and extended school day will meet the USDA Smart Snacks in School (Smart Snacks) nutrition standards and any applicable state nutrition standards, at a minimum. Smart Snacks aim to improve student health and well being, increase consumption of healthful foods during the school day, and create an environment that reinforces the development of healthy eating habits.
4. Celebrations, Rewards and Fundraising
  1. Student wellness will be a consideration for all foods offered, but not sold, to students at school, including those foods provided through:
    1. Celebrations and parties. The District will provide a list of healthy party ideas to parents/guardians and teachers, including non-food celebration ideas.
    2. Classroom snacks brought by parents/guardians. The District will provide to parents/guardians a list of suggested foods and beverages.
  2. Rewards and incentives. Schools will not use non-Smart Snack compliant foods or beverages as rewards for academic performance or good behavior (unless this practice is allowed by a student’s individual education plan or behavior intervention plan) and will not withhold food or beverages as a consequence or punishment, and will recommend staff use physical activity as a reward when feasible.
  3. Fundraising. Non-food fundraising is recommended. If food is sold as part of an out-of school fundraiser, it should be sold according to the Competitive Foods Nutrition Standards. Please see the Fundraising Procedure for further information.
5. Food and Beverage Marketing in Schools
  1. School-based marketing will be consistent with nutrition education and health promotion.
  2. Schools will restrict food and beverages marketing to the promotion of only those foods and beverages that meet the Smart Snacks nutrition standards, including but not limited to marketing on school property, in educational materials, media/publications.
WELLNESS LEADERSHIP AND COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
1. Wellness Coordinator
  1. The Superintendent will designate a District official to oversee the District’s wellness related activities (Wellness Coordinator). The Wellness Coordinator will ensure that each school implements the policy,
  2. The principal of each school, or a designated school official, will ensure compliance within the school and will report to the Wellness Coordinator regarding compliance matters upon request.
2. Public Involvement
  1. The Wellness Coordinator will permit parents/guardians, students, food service personnel, teachers of physical education, school health professionals, the Board, administrators, and the general public to participate in the development, implementation, and periodic review and update of the wellness policy.
  2. The Wellness Coordinator will hold quarterly meetings, for the purpose of discussing the development, implementation, and periodic review and update of the wellness policy. All meeting dates and times will be posted on the District’s website and will be open to the public.
3. Staff Wellness and Health Promotion
  The District will have a Wellbeing Action Team that focuses on staff wellness issues, identifies and disseminates wellness resources and performs other functions that support staff wellness in coordination with human resources staff to establish and support school building level wellness committees. When feasible, the District will offer professional learning opportunities and resources for staff to increase knowledge and skills about promoting healthy behaviors. Professional learning will help District staff understand the connections between academics and health and the ways in which health and wellness are integrated into ongoing District reform or academic improvement plans/efforts.
POLICY IMPLEMENTATION AND MONITORING
1. Implementation and Publication
  1. After approval by the Board, the wellness policy will be implemented throughout the District.
  2. The District will post its wellness policy on its website.
2. Annual Reporting
  The Wellness Coordinator will annually inform the public about the content and implementation of the wellness policy and make the policy and any updates to the policy available to the public.
3. Triennial Assessment
  1. At least once every three years, the District will evaluate compliance with the wellness policy to assess the implementation of the policy and create a report that includes the following information:
    1. the extent to which schools under the jurisdiction of the District are in compliance with the wellness policy;
    2. the extent to which the District’s wellness policy compares to model local wellness policies; and
    3. a description of the progress made in attaining the goals of the District’s wellness policy.
  2. The Wellness Coordinator will be responsible for conducting the triennial assessment.
  3. The triennial assessment report shall be posted on the District’s website.
4. Recordkeeping
  The District will retain records to document compliance with the requirements of the wellness policy. The records to be retained include, but are not limited to:
  1. The District’s written wellness policy.
  2. Documentation demonstrating compliance with community involvement requirements, including requirements to make the wellness policy and triennial assessments available to the public.
  3. Documentation of the triennial assessment of the wellness policy for each school and efforts to review and update the wellness policy (including an indication of who is involved in the update and methods the District uses to make stakeholders aware of their ability to participate on the Wellness Committee).

Legal References:

Minn. Stat. § 121A.215 (Local School District Wellness Policy) 42 U.S.C. § 1751 et seq. (Healthy and Hunger-Free Kids Act)
42 U.S.C. § 1758b (Local School Wellness Policy)
42 U.S.C. § 1771 et seq. (Child Nutrition Act of 1966)
7 U.S.C. § 5341 (Establishment of Dietary Guidelines)
7 C.F.R. § 210.10 (School Lunch Program Regulations)
7 C.F.R. § 220.8 (School Breakfast Program Regulations)

Local Resources:

Minnesota Department of Education, www.education.state.mn.us
Minnesota Department of Health, www.health.state.mn.us
County Health Departments
Action for Healthy Kids Minnesota, www.actionforhealthykids.org
United States Department of Agriculture, www.fns.usda.gov