Wellness

Local Wellness Policy—Is Your School Ready?

A new federal law, “The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization of 2004” requires local education agencies, such as South Central Service Cooperative, to look at what steps they can take to improve physical activity and nutrition in schools. Under this new law, South Central Service Cooperative can provide help to schools, before the 2006-07 school year, for the development and implementation a “Local Wellness Policy.”
Each school’s individual “Wellness Policy,” as stated by law, must include:

• Goals for nutrition education and physical activity.
• Nutrition guidelines for all foods available on school campuses.
• Assurance that the free/reduced lunch guidelines are met.
• Evidence of the involvement: Ways for parents, students, school administrators, school food authorities to get involved in developing the Wellness Policy.
• Plans for evaluating the school’s Wellness Policy.
• Other school-based activities designed to promote student wellness.
  

For more information on the South Central Service Cooperative’s Wellness Program and how it can help schools develop and implement their school’s “Wellness Policy,” please refer to: www.mnscsc.org and click on Wellness Program.