Transcript Beyond Hot Dogs and Potato Chips: Do School Nutrition

School Nutrition Policies
in Prince Edward Island
Dr Jennifer Taylor
Associate Professor
Department of Family & Nutritional Sciences
Co-Chair, PEI Healthy Eating Alliance
Where it all began…
PEI Timeline: Elementary School Nutrition Policy
Development, Implementation and Evaluation
Children’s food
survey
Ont vs
PEI
survey
School Food
Survey
2002
School Food
Survey
2005
2003
2001
Elementary School
Nutrition Policy
Development
Tremblay & Willms
Report on Childhood Obesity
School
policy
adherence
2006
Elementary School
Nutrition Policy Full
Implementation
In 2002, PEI Children Had Poor Eating
Habits
 Too little: Milk Products,
Vegetables & Fruit
 Too much: Soft drinks
French fries
High fat/sugary
snacks
Evers, Taylor, Manske, & Midgett, 2001;
Taylor, Bradley, & Peacock, 2003
Before PEI had nutrition policies in
schools (2002)…
 68% sold regular hot dogs
 >90% sold pepperoni pizza,
chicken nuggets
 67% that had canteens sold
chips
 4/5 foods in vending machines
were unhealthy
 54% schools used food for
fundraising
It is critical that schools
are not part of the
“obesigenic environment”
Elementary Nutrition Policy Development:
From the Bottom Up
 Dept Health
contracted with HEA
to develop policies
 Schools without
cafeterias
 School district level
 17 “Lead” schools
across the province
Decision makers
New Policy
Grass roots
Allowing Schools to Talk and Have
Input Throughout the Process…
 Increased Ownership AND started the change
process:
 “Thank you for listening and I really hope this is something you could
help us turn into policy and action.”
 “It was great to see how other schools deal with these
issues.”
 “[We appreciated]….the interaction between other
schools and realizing that the same problems are
everywhere.”
Allowing Schools to Talk and Have
Input Throughout the Process…
 Increased “expert”
understanding of the
school change process
 Helped identify policy
elements most likely
to make a difference
AND most likely to be
implementable
 “.....I don’t think we can make drastic
changes, I think it’s a process, I think we
need to keep working and make a few
changes....it’s a process of 2-3-4 years
for schools...because it’s better
slowly...than to go quickly and then miss
the boat...”
 Principal, from Freeze, 2006.
PEI Elementary Policy Elements
 Same policy was adopted 2005/06 by
all 3 school districts (province wide)
 Elements:
 1. Nutrition Education
 2. Student Access to food
 3. Quality of Food Available
Availability of Healthy Food Choices
 4 food based lists
 Why?
 No cafeterias; volunteer lunch
programs/canteens
 Concern that complicated policies
would impede adherence
 Avoid complete bans on foods (Satter
approach)
Support for Implementation
Support for Implementation
 Challenges:
 Role clarification needed: HEA vs School
Districts
 Inadequate staff resources
 No community dietitians assigned to
schools
 Sustainability of networking meetings:
costly due to teacher substitute fees
What?!...An “F”??
But…positive change is already happening
Canteens: 2002 vs.2005
90
80
83.3
66.7
**
70
56.3
60
50
*
40
33.3
58.3
35.7 38.5
33.3
30
20
12.5
4.2
10
0
* p<0.05
** p<0.001
Chips
Cer Bar
Yogurt
2002
2005
Juice
Milk Ch
Foods Sold at Lunch: 2002-2005
100
90.6
91.2
80
67.7
60
40
*
38.2
33.3
38.2
20
0
Hot Dogs
Pizza
2002
* p<0.05
2005
Chk nug
Issues
 Bottom up
approach has been
effective re: “buy
in”
 Bottom up + top
down needed
 Policy revision, then
provincial adoption
 Funding,
sustainability
Decision makers
New Policy
Grass roots
Conclusions
 Political will, public focus on acute
care an ongoing challenge
 Intermediate/Senior High policies in
development; will have nutrient
rather than food based standards
Acknowledgements
Department of Health
Thanks to schools and teachers!