Making it Happen: Healthy Eating at School

Contact:
Denis Lessard, Principal, Bouchie Lake Elementary
E-mail: denislessard@sd28.bc.ca  Tel: 250.249.5913

Process:
In the fall of 2003 a student council of 35 students was elected and met on a regular basis in a talking circle format.  Each member of the council from grades one to seven had equal responsibilities and rights.  All decisions were made using a consensus model and there was not an elected executive council.

Items taken on by the council were the assisting with the application to become Quesnel’s HEAL school for the 2004-2005 school year as well as helping staff implement the Provincial Action School’s program  for the 2005-2006 school year. A brief review of these two initiatives follows.  This review was part of Dragon Lake’s successful bid to receive a School Recognition Award of $3000.00 from UBC.

HEAL: Healthy Eating Active Living
 In the 2004-2005 school year, Dragon Lake students worked with nutritionists from the Northern Health Authority to increase awareness of healthier eating habits.  Students compared food items presently sold in the concession with healthier options and created posters to display the differences.  A “Food Fair” was held on March 17, 2005, where the entire school population read the posters, answered student-generated questions, tasted the healthier option and recorded if they would buy the healthier food items in our concession or hot lunch program.
 Dragon Lake’s hot lunch program was being revised.  At that time, their proposed menu was being assessed by a nutritionist in the fall of 2005.
 In March 2007, Dragon Lake Elementary was chosen by the Northern Health Authority to pilot a Farm to School Salad Bar.  The first six weeks of the pilot took place at the end of the school year.  The next portion of the pilot started in mid-October and will continue to March, 2008.  The objectives of this program are to have the students increase their fruit and vegetable consumption, improve student knowledge about foods, nutrition, and health, enhance student skills in food production, processing and handling (Food safe course), increase student understanding that local food systems and the food produced from such systems is central to health, culture, community, environment, and the local economy, strengthen health, farm, and school partnerships and to provide a model program, having potential to be implemented elsewhere in the province.

Action Schools:
 Three staff attended an Action Schools workshop in March 2005.
 In June 2005, Dragon Lake completed the requirements to become a registered Action School.
 In September 2005, entire staff was in-serviced by an Action Schools Representative to aid in the implementation of our Action School plan for 2005-2006.

People involved:
The success of Dragon Lake’s program is a direct result of the dedication of a very professional teaching staff, committed students and an extremely supportive parent and community group. 

Key changes or results:
 Upon the completion of the “Food Fair” the student council staff representatives met with PAC and made a successful bid to have the PAC hot lunch menus vetted by a nutritionist in Quesnel.  The PAC accepted the challenge and although the new menu resulted in a decrease in fund raising for the first year last year’s profits were back to previous levels.
 Another result of the “Food Fair” was the establishment of a Student Council run healthy concession.  This concession was successful and the PAC readily gave up their fun concession that formally sold items such as chips and candy.
 One of the most popular items from the “Food Fair” was the Caesar Salad option.

Challenges:
 Attention needs to be paid to the whole aspect of running a successful “Food Fair”.The cost of purchasing the items to be tasted was approximately $1000.00.  These funds came from our HEAL grant. The school was lucky enough that one of Quesnel’s main supermarket’s managers had his children attending Dragon Lake so this helped defray some of the costs.
 Student Council staff sponsors worked many hours to help the council coordinate the program.  Samples of the display boards are available through Michelle Lessard.
 Most of the school staff was involved in prepping the samples after school for several hours the day preceding the actual Fair.

Keys to success:
 A commitment from staff, students and parents is essential.
 PAC needs to agree to have menus vetted by a nutritionist  to ensure that the offerings are in line with the Province’s new directions.
 There needs to be funds available to help educate the students, not just on paper but to enable the students to taste alternatives.
 By having the PAC and staff agree to a cold turkey approach the pain of the change was minimal and the advantages of the change have been enormous.

Next Steps:
 At the school level, each year, schools in our District may apply to our Administration Office for a HEAL grant to help with the implementation of any healthy eating or active living initiative they would like to take on.