PWC School Wellness Plan

Prince William County Public Schools

Wellness Plan

Executive Summary

Children need access to healthful foods and opportunities to be physically active in order to grow, learn, and thrive.  Such good health fosters student attendance and education. 

Unfortunately, obesity rates have doubled in children and tripled in adolescents over the last two decades.  The predominant causes of obesity are excessive caloric intake and physical inactivity.  Unhealthy habits established in childhood can lead to increased risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes for adults.  For the first time, a generation of children has a life expectancy less than that of their parents.

The National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity (NANA) provides documentation of the national impact of the increase in obesity and inactivity in its report, “Obesity and Other Diet- and Inactivity-Related Diseases.”  The entire report with supporting statistics is available at www.NANAcoalition.org. 

Only 2% of children (aged two to nineteen years) eat a healthy diet consistent with the five main recommendations from the Food Guide Pyramid.  The items most commonly sold from school vending machines, school stores, and snack bars include foods and beverages of minimal nutritional value.  Nationally, 33% of high school students do not participate in sufficient vigorous physical activity and 72% of high school students do not attend daily physical education classes.

The causes of the obesity epidemic have been directly related to poor eating habits and lack of physical activity. Food portion size and the overall amount of consumption are important contributors to weight gain. Multiple factors have increased the trend toward more indoor time and less outdoor play.  The result is a generation at risk.

Nutrition Standard

• Plan school meals to meet standards defined by the Governor’s Scorecard.
• Operate the School Breakfast Program to ensure that all children have access to breakfast.
• Make the Summer Food Service Program available to school sites with over 50% of students on free or reduced lunch.
• Prohibit the withholding of food as a punishment.
• Support celebrations that involve food that makes a positive contribution to children’s diets and health.
• No food or beverages shall be sold to students during established meal periods other than those sold by School Food and Nutrition Services.
• All foods and beverages sold during the school day must meet established nutrition standards.
• To the extent possible, provide students who arrive at the appropriate time with at least ten minutes to eat breakfast (after sitting down), and twelve minutes for lunch (after sitting down) on an average day.
• To the extent possible, schedule lunch between 10:00 AM and 1:30 PM.
• Study the impact of scheduling lunch to follow recess in elementary schools.
• Study the impact of ensuring that foods/beverages sold outside of the reimbursable school meals meet standards defined by the Governor’s Scorecard.
  
  

Nutrition Education Goals

• Provide a minimum of five hours of classroom nutrition education each year in grades kindergarten through ten.

Physical Activity Goals

• Provide physical education instruction for students in kindergarten through grade five to equal at least two forty five minute periods in every five or six day rotation.
• Provide physical education instruction for students in grades six and seven to equal at least forty five minutes every other day each week for the entire school year.
• Provide physical education for students in grades eight through ten to equal two hundred and twenty five minutes each week for the entire school year.
• Offer a variety of cooperative, individual/personal and competitive physical activities in physical education classes that shall reflect the needs and interests of all students.
• Prohibit using physical activity as a punishment and strongly discourage withholding opportunities for physical activity as a punishment.
• Increase the effort of PWCS in working cooperatively with private and community organizations to make quality spaces and facilities available to students, staff, and community members.
• Study the impact of providing at least twenty minutes each day of supervised recess for all elementary school students.
• Study the impact of offering extracurricular physical activity programs in all elementary, middle and high schools that meet the needs, interests and abilities of all students.