Sudbury Schools' Mission Nutrition: A Three Pronged Approach of Nutrition Education in the Cafeteria, Classroom, and the Home

Abstract

LEARNING OUTCOME: To show RDs how to facilitate, integrate, and communicate effective nutrition education in school cafeterias, the classrooms, and the home. A grant was received from the Sudbury Education Resource Fund, Inc., (SERF) in Sudbury, Massachusetts, from September 1996 to June 1997, to facilitate the translation of nutrition awareness and education. In June of 1996, a survey was sent home to both the students and their parents from the elementary schools seeking information regarding the food selections in the cafeteria. Students and parents were asked to rate the food choices and preferences. Surveys were collected and analyzed during the summer of 1996. Using this survey information, along with the United States Department of Agriculture and Federal School Lunch Program's guidelines, the Food Service Director (FSD) designed the monthly menus. Simultaneously, the Health Educator (HE) and teachers facilitated nutrition education in the classroom and encouraged healthy food choices in the cafeteria. With supervision, selected students helped plan and design healthy school lunches. The Registered Dietitian (RD) designed a monthly newsletter that was sent home to the parents, informing them of the healthy food options in the cafeteria and the ongoing nutrition education in the classrooms as well as nutrition facts, tips, and recipes that could facilitate healthy changes in the home. The program was received favorably by the students and parents. Sales of school lunches and healthy snacks were shown to increase. This approach of nutritionally educating students in the classroom with reinforcing environmental changes in the school cafeteria, and a continual How of information to the parents, proved to be highly successful.