Highlights of School Nutrition Report
Posted on November 18, 2008
I was cruising around the CDC’s website and found a report showing how schools are decreasing the availability of junk food to students.
Here are some highlights from The School Health Policies and Programs Study (SHPPS) 2006, done by the CDC and published in the October 2007 issue of the Journal of School Health:
– Schools selling water in vending machines or school stores increased from 30 percent in 2000 to 46 percent in 2006.
– Schools that sold cookies, cake, or other high-fat baked goods in vending machines or school stores decreased from 38 percent in 2000 to 25 percent in 2006.
– The percentage of schools that offered French fries a la carte decreased from 40 percent to 19 percent.
See the full report from the CDC here.
So there is some progress being made with the types food being offered at schools and that is a good thing. While I think these are good steps, I still think it starts with education. School-aged kids and teens should be educated so they can make better food choices.
“If we want to build on the improvements that schools have made over the past six years, we need to involve many people and programs. Families, schools, school boards, and school administrators all need to work together to develop and implement policies and programs that promote health and safety among our nation’s young people.”
–Director of CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health
The best improvement we can make, in my opinion, is to make good choices ourselves. When we (parents, future parents, teachers, administrators, everyone!) show examples of good eating and physical activity, our kids will follow.
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Interesting. I’d like to see the 2008 data and see if there has been any improvement. Kids are still getting fatter and schools are still feeding them junk. When my kids go to school I am going to pack their lunch every day.
@Paunchiness Yeah, the 2008 data should be interesting. Good for you to pack their lunch. My wife and I plan on doing the same.
As part of my job I tried to get the Elementary schools in Iron County on board as part of the Gold Medals Schools program. What a run around! How can the kids be healthy if the schools are not willing to be a part of such health programs? It seems like it really is up to the family and having a healthy home environment.
My friend was just lamenting the other day how her daughter would not eat the snack that she packs for her. Turns out the teacher gives potato chips or buttered popcorn as snacks to those kids whose parents cannot afford snacks. The daughter was pretending that she forgets to bring her snack every time. It takes the whole village. but we have to start somewhere so the home is a good place to start as any.
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Very, very interesting! Always important to see where the schools are!
@Zoe Hofheins Schools should definitely help, but I think you’re right –it’s gotta start in the home. Thanks for the insight.
@asithi wow. that’s interesting. It is a hard thing to get everyone on board but all we can do is our best, right?
@Mark Thanks. Yeah, I’m glad I came across this report and glad I could share it.