For some students whose families experience food insecurity or hunger, the only consistent meals that they receive may be the ones served at school. As a result, many students experience hunger during school breaks, closures, and weekends. For more than …
Monthly Harvest Toolkits Provide Support for Farm to School
Research shows that the most effective way to get kids excited about eating more fruits and vegetables is to engage them in the growing, cooking, and tasting of delicious, fresh, produce. This is where farm to school programs can play …
Healthy Fundraising
Promoting healthy behaviors outside of the classroom is a natural way to encourage hands-on learning; why then, do we use candy and other sweets to raise money at many school fundraisers? Common fundraisers, such as bake sales, may increase calorie …
Administrative Steps to Serving Garden Produce in the School Cafeteria
School gardens have become wildly popular in the last few years as an experiential education opportunity for students. Many school gardens grow enough produce for classrooms to have taste tests of different fruits and vegetables throughout the year, but some …
Daily Water Recommendation
Water, what is the Big Deal? Up to 60% of the adult human body is water. Everyone has heard the recommendation to drink 8 glasses of water a day, but how much of that is urban myth?
The Institute of …
The Blue Zones® Project: Bringing Positive Change to School Wellness
Blue Zones® is a health and wellness initiative founded by Dan Buettner. He travelled all over the world researching communities. The areas that he found to be the healthiest with the greatest longevity he named the ‘Blue Zones.’
The Blue …
Decreasing Waste in Schools: Food Recycling Options
About 30% of food in the US food supply is wasted each year! That’s 133 billion pounds of food – a problem when considering hunger, limited financial resources, and environmental concerns. A study in Minnesota found that food waste was …
It is Alive! Using Innovative Marketing to Increase Vegetable Uptake in School Cafeterias
There is substantial evidence that children are not eating the recommended amounts of healthy fruits and vegetables. In an effort to motivate children to eat more fruits and vegetables, school cafeterias are now required to offer a fruit or vegetable …
Using School Gardens to Promote Children’s Physical Activity and Fitness
Encouraging healthy food choices, nutrition, and wellness among school children can extend beyond the classroom or the school cafeteria. School gardens are a wonderful place to educate and support students to use healthy eating practices. In addition, they can also …
The Community Eligibility Provision and School Meals: A Fact Sheet
Overview
The community eligibility provision (CEP) is an option of meal reimbursement that allows schools with high rates of students who qualify for free or reduced meals to provide breakfast and lunch to all enrolled students at no charge. This …