Ok, here's a recap of what I've done this school year so far: I'll go into more detail in a bit. I'm still trying to play catch up and outline all that I've done in this effort. Then I can start writing more currently!
November 8 - brought the movie "Two Angry Moms" to Tulsa. More than 30 people showed up. Assembled a group of "experts" dedicated to improving children's health to join discussion after the movie.
December - Showed a pp presentation to school administrators and made a plea for more proactive nutrition/better school food efforts within our district. Did this with another mom. Showed statistics and facts as to why/how unhealthy food affects learning, school's bottom line, etc. Not recieved very well. Administrators did not see a strong need. They did agree to create a district-wide healthy and fit committee but it will only meet once a year!
November - Had a successful "healthy eating" themed PTA meeting. A rep from OK Fit Kids Coalition spoke at the event. Had healthy snack samples. Had great and positive discussion amongst parents.
December - Major ICE STORM hit. City shut down for week. No electricity for days. My son was sick during all of this. I did not handle this stressful situation very well but it was a learning experience. Then Christmas season - had to stop and reevaluate all of my efforts.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Beginnings of this Journey
Back to how I got started. First, a bit about my kids school. It's huge. It's a mini-college campus for grades pre-k through 4th grade. There are several buildings. Each grade has its own building and principal. There are about 13 classes per grade. The school ranks very high academically in our state and overall I'm very happy with the education my kids are getting here. My daughter has had incredible teachers. She's in 1st grade now. My son is in the pre-k.
When she was in pre-k I joined the school's healthy and fit committee - mandated by Federal and state law. We didn't accomplish a whole lot that first year. The second year I chaired a subcommittee that created "snack guidelines" for the school. In the younger grades, the kids take turns bringing shared snacks. At 1st grade and above, kids bring their own snacks. These guidelines were meant to suggest healthier snacks, i.e. instead of little debbies, bring in pretzels, for example. I also need to add that state law mandates no homemade food is allowed. I don't agree with this - all food (most of loaded with high fructose corn syrup and transfat) must be store-bought. For every birthday party, parents bring in cupcakes loaded with 5 inches of frosting. Actually, I just found out that another elementary school in our school district is no longer allowing the goodies for individual b-day parties. I think this is great!
At the end of my daughter's kindergarten year, I decided to take my efforts one step further and asked the PTA president if we could form a PTA healthy and fit committee. She agreed. I started that effort this year. More about this coming up.
When she was in pre-k I joined the school's healthy and fit committee - mandated by Federal and state law. We didn't accomplish a whole lot that first year. The second year I chaired a subcommittee that created "snack guidelines" for the school. In the younger grades, the kids take turns bringing shared snacks. At 1st grade and above, kids bring their own snacks. These guidelines were meant to suggest healthier snacks, i.e. instead of little debbies, bring in pretzels, for example. I also need to add that state law mandates no homemade food is allowed. I don't agree with this - all food (most of loaded with high fructose corn syrup and transfat) must be store-bought. For every birthday party, parents bring in cupcakes loaded with 5 inches of frosting. Actually, I just found out that another elementary school in our school district is no longer allowing the goodies for individual b-day parties. I think this is great!
At the end of my daughter's kindergarten year, I decided to take my efforts one step further and asked the PTA president if we could form a PTA healthy and fit committee. She agreed. I started that effort this year. More about this coming up.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
How I got started
It's late and I'm tired but thought I'd write just a bit. I'm mainly doing this blog as an online journal of everything I do and have done. Realizwd I need a tool to keep track of all of my efforts. My journey really began Fall of 2005 when my daughter started the k4 program at our local elementary school. When I saw all the junk food allowed - food that my breastfed for 16 months, organically fed, wholesome, healthy child, had NEVER eaten - I was shocked and appalled. I'll just take care of this I thought as I set up a meeting with the PTA president and principal. Well more than 2.5 years later, the battle continues. . .
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