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Healthy Choices: Healthier Schools

Food, health, and learning are closely related, and the school environment has a direct impact on a child’s health. Students, on average, consume 1/3 of their daily calories at school, mostly through food purchased at school from vending machines, the cafeteria, school stores, or school fundraisers. As more attention is being given to the links between child health and learning, BC schools are moving toward a ‘Comprehensive School Health’ approach that builds on the idea that healthier kids do better in school. Likewise, kids who do well in school also lead healthier lifestyles.

Since it is known that kids develop many lifelong habits and attitudes in school, the BC Ministry of Education has launched Healthy Schools. Healthy Schools is a framework that recognizes the contributions of teaching, learning, school environment, policy, and community partnerships in creating a healthy school environment. Partnership opportunities have allowed groups who are interested in both the health and educational success of school aged children in BC to also take part in the Healthy Schools initiative. An example is the Healthy Schools Network that is run by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Healthy Living and Sport. The two main components of the Healthy Schools strategy are physical activity and healthy eating.

  1. Physical Activity

    Health Canada recommends that children and youth take part in at least 90 minutes of physical activity per day. In fact, many experts encourage even more physical activity than that. In Canada, three out of five children aged 5-17 do not meet Health Canada’s guideline, and one in four children aged 2-17 is overweight or obese. In response, the BC Ministry of Education has implemented a Daily Physical Activity policy that requires schools to provide 30 minutes of daily physical activity for students in Kindergarten to Grade 9 and at least 150 minutes of physical activity per week for students in Grades 10 to 12.

  2. Healthy Eating

    To promote healthy eating, the BC Ministry of Education has launched Guidelines for Food and Beverage Sales in Schools. These guidelines suggest that schools provide access to healthier options and eliminate unhealthy foods in the school setting (i.e. vending machines, cafeteria, fundraisers involving sales of unhealthy foods, etc.)

    3. To work towards creating a specific action plan for your school:

    1. Sign your school up to be an Action School with Action Schools! BC:

      1. Teachers will get trained to help improve the availability of healthy food choices and physical activity at school.
      2. Your school will get healthy eating and physical activity resources such as school equipment and programming suggestions.
      3. Your school will be working together with other Canadian schools in a team effort to create schools that support healthy living and healthy learning.

    2. Start eating and serving healthy foods in schools.

      1. Look at the foods available at your school and compare them with the recommended Guidelines for Food and Beverage Sales in Schools to see where your school can improve.
      2.  Eliminate foods that fall in the “Choose Least” and “Not Recommended” categories and replace them with healthier choices.
      3. Stock your school’s cafeteria with healthier foods as suggested by these guidelines.

    3. Encourage your students to adopt physical activity as per the Daily Physical Activity Requirement.

      1. Encourage students of all ages to keep a record of their physical activity.
      2. In addition to scheduled Physical Education programs, active living can be encouraged within schools by creating lesson plans in other classes that include physical activity.

    For more information on the policies and guidelines mentioned, in addition to more information on how to make your school a healthier one, check out the following links:

    Action Schools! BC
    Comprehensive School Health
    Healthy Schools
    Healthy Schools Network
    Daily Physical Activity
    Guidelines for Food and Beverage Sales in Schools

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