Healthy Families, Healthy Schools
Health Families, Healthy Schools is a program of HEM that aims to help families understand the link between a healthy lifestyle and student success. Using the pillars of the First Lady’s Let’s Move! Initiative, HEM will provide resources to families to support them in their endeavor to eat healthy and be active.
About 28 percent of Hawaii’s high school students are overweight according to the Hawaii Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). Although this rate is lower than the national rate of 32 percent, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation study noted that Hawaii high school obesity rate rose from 10.5 percent in 1999 to 14.5 percent in 2009. Further, the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) states that health and success in school are related, and schools cannot achieve their primary mission of education if students and staff are not healthy and fit physically, mentally, and socially. But the evidence also shows that making healthier choices can make a difference: healthy food choices and physical activity contributes to increased academic performance and a child’s ability to pay attention in class.
In response to some of these childhood health issues, the Hawaii DOE now requires all schools to have a wellness policy. How is your school implementing its wellness policy? How do you know if a snack or beverage meets the Hawaii DOE wellness guidelines? For starters, Hawaii Action for Healthy Kids (AFHK) provides a list of items that meet the DOE guidelines. Here you’ll find ideas for healthy snack foods and healthy fundraising. Another excellent resource, Hawaii 5210! , is an initiative to promote healthy eating and active living and prevent childhood obesity in Hawaii through a coordinated, collaborative, locally relevant health education campaign. On their website you will find ideas for supporting a healthy school environment that can help your school meet the DOE wellness guidelines.
Doing something innovative at your school to support wellness? Let us know, we want to share your story.
ZAMZEE!
Generous support from Kaiser Permanente Hawaii has made possible the launch of our first program of the Healthy Schools, Healthy Families Initiative, Zamzee. In partnership with Hope Lab, HEM will pilot this project that aims to increase physical activity among ‘tweens’ (teens 11-14 years old) through the use of Zamzee, a technology that monitors, quantifies, and rewards physical activity in a motivating and engaging way. Zamzee is an innovative way to leverage the power and appeal of technology to encourage healthier lifestyles, showing the emerging role of technology in the promotion of physical activity among youth. In scientific studies, Zamzee increased the physical activity of tweens by as much as 30 percent.
Beginning November 2011, HEM will pilot the efficacy of Zamzee with approximately 750 youth on Oahu. For more information please contact Jennifer Dang at limiakokua@hawaii.rr.com.
Cost of School Lunch May Increase by 40%
In the recent headlines you might have noticed an article about the Hawaii Department of Education proposing an increased cost of school breakfast and lunch in 2012-13 school year to make up a $6 million cut in state funding to school food service. The steep price increases will affect approximately 42% of school food service customers who currently pay the full price of their meals. Students receiving free or reduced-cost meals will not see a price increase.
The proposed changes are:
- For elementary schools – Breakfast will go up from $1 to $1.70, Lunch $2.25 to $3.10
- For secondary schools - Breakfast will go up from $1.10 to $1.85, Lunch $2.50 to $3.35
For a family with two children in elementary school, the lunch bill will be $6.20 a day, $31 a week, approximately $124 a month!
DOE officials are predicting a 20% drop in full paying customers. Previous price increases have generally resulted in three behavior changes:
- More families enroll in the federally funded free and reduced-cost lunch.
- More parents have to “borrow” money from schools in the form of lunch loans
- More parents pack home lunch for their kids
Whether or not these price increases take effect will be determined by the 2012 State Legislature as they will determine how much supplemental funds they will give the Department of Education. HEM will be monitoring this issue carefully, so stay tuned! In the meantime, if you want to learn more about school food School Food Focus has put together an excellent resource called, School Food 101.
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