Scholars have asserted that we can’t mandate our own children’s health since we are all such a wreck as parents. Instead, in order to prevent the inevitable, we must depend on governmental experts. According to one expert, what that is:
“We are going to have the first generation of children who are not going to live as long as their parents.” Dr. George Blackburn, Harvard Medical School
The Federally Mandated Wellness Policy is well underway, with schools offering online reports of the things they have done as a way to be in compliance with all the mandates.
While big plans and huge goals are part and parcel of the government’s wellness program, where did those goals and mandates genuinely take the schools? In the four years since this policy was put in place, has obesity been significantly reduced by school lunches, breakfast programs, along with other things?
Have wide ranging changes and improvement been reported by the school systems? In many instances, not likely.
The Guidelines:
* “Establish a local school wellness policy no later than the first day of school after June 30, 2006.
* School Wellness Policies must contain at least:
– Goals for nutrition education, physical activity, etc to promote student wellness
– Nutrition guidelines for all foods available during the school day should promote student health and reduce childhood obesity”
These guidelines quite interesting. As parents or educators, the guidelines don’t spell out what exactly our goals should be. Nothing is said about where the funding will come from for the new physical activity programs and new eating patterns for the children.
As one blogging mother, intending to review her school’s Wellness Policy, puts it best ” Super Donut, S’mores pop tart, fruit loops, corn dogs and so forth….” are being served in the cafeterias. How can serving foods reminiscent of fastfood, or sweet treats provide a new outlook?
Chicken nuggets, pizza, nachos, and other foods that do not appear to comply with wellness policies are on the monthly menus of Las Vegas School Districts.
In the Federally Mandated Guidelines, exactly where do these kinds of foods fit? Are they in the letter of the Wellness Policy? Or even in the spirit of it? Are they teaching better nutrition through example?
Out of parents from three school districts in two states, not one of them was contacted by their school in regards to the wellness policy and the government’s goals of it. Can we make the changes that are needed with no cooperation of the family involved?
The Federal Mandates seem to lend more confidence towards the school’s influence on the child than the parents have. In almost every case, this is incorrect. When changing the child’s outlook toward food and wellness, you will be much more successful when including the family in your attempts, but this is not done.
The federal government seems to have good motives. The goals of the federal mandates are to help our kids to be better equipped to live longer, healthy lives, clear of obesity problems and heart disease, and to save us from ourselves.
Laudable in every respect, but somewhat impractical when one considers that:
-Schools don’t encourage the participation of parents and family
-Foods served oftentimes have the look of fastfood and still encourage that lifestyle and ways of eating.
-School budget cutbacks in recent days have left the schools without the money to buy pencils, to replace old textbooks, and also to keep good teachers, let alone buying locally grown vegetables and fruit to assure compliance with a healthier tomorrow.
The Wellness Policy’s final outcome on child obesity has yet to come. While we have hope that it may change the future for some of those children, without some change in the way that schools interpret the policy, that might not be in the cards.
school food service