As published on the Ohio Department of Education webpage The Ohio Revised Code (ORC) 3313.60 states that the board of each cooperative education school district shall prescribe a curriculum for all schools under its control for health education. The health education curriculum must include: The nutritive value of foods, including natural and organically produced foods, the relation of nutrition to health, and the use and effects of food additives…
Nutrition education is viewed as a key factor in preparing students for the world. So much so that the state curriculum mandates that “health, one-half unit, which shall include instruction in nutrition and the benefits of nutritious foods and physical activity for overall health” are required for graduation from an Ohio high school.
A school nurse (SN) has ample and varied opportunities and roles to contribute to the mandate of student education on natural and organically produced foods. One of the best ways to promote health education is to find teachable moments to educate the healthy students. For example, inquiring what a student chose for lunch or breakfast and dispensing information to the child, having healthy snacks available for students, and looking critically at what foods are being offered to children compared to what foods they are consuming, and conversing with kids about the choices. Providing listings of community resources to students and families who may suffer from food or nutrition scarcity. Additional opportunities are to educate teachers and classroom staff on ways to have classroom celebrations without sugary treats, and ways to incorporate nutrition education into classroom habits.
There are some more in depth ways that a SN can collaborate with other school professionals to work towards this state mandate for an elementary school. A school nurse can join forces with those that create the school or district’s health and nutrition choices for both school lunch and vending. This can include assisting in critiquing and choosing a food vendor, menu options, and monitoring for food and allergen safety. A SN may be aware of national health goals such as those from the CDC’s Healthy Schools initiative and Healthy People 2020 that can be shared with the staff to help create an environment where a child can easily make a healthy food choice. Examples may be a SN suggesting limiting beverage options to water and milk, or another low-sugar option, placing fruits and vegetable near the start and ends of a food line, ensuring nutrition information is posted with the food display, or a SN could make an indication mark on food items that meet child nutrition guidelines. With this in mind, publishing an email or a newsletter to update and educate staff on a regular basis could be an excellent way to inform staff of the virus-du-jour and include a staff education piece. Both the CDC and the USDA offer many free printable resources for teachers and classrooms which can enhance nutrition education efforts.
Another ground-level collaboration can happen when the SN gets involved with curriculum development for all school subjects. A few examples are working with language arts faculty to make sure that reading food nutrition labels and critiquing food advertisements is part of the LA curriculum. Using calories (+) and activity (-) in math class for math problems involving making healthy food choices that balance calories with activity. Or, the SN can join with the science teacher to create some experiments to look at soil health, organic soils and fertilization methods, sprouting and growing seeds. A SN can start a school garden, or invite a farmer in for a guest speaker. A grade school I am familiar with incorporates naturally growing foods and nutrition learning into the foreign language program. The spanish classes start, grow and tend a salsa garden of peppers, onions, cilantro, garlic, corn and tomatoes. At the start of the following school year they harvest the vegetables and fruits and make salsa for a cultural celebration. Nutrition education is a vital to the success of students and should never be limited to a single lesson plan or class. A student garden can be a great segway to starting a “farm to table” initiative for obtaining fresh, local fruits and vegetables in a school and community.
Evaluation of such efforts can be measured by data collection of metrics such as number of healthy food offerings in the lunch program, a tally of student food choices before and after education, inquiry with food service team to watch for an increase in fruits and vegetables served and consumed at school. For older elementary students a quiz can be given to assess for learning success.
Resources:
Centers for Disease Control Healthy Schools retrieved April 13, 2019
https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/nutrition/schoolnutrition.htm
Centers for Disease Control Tips for Teachers. Retrieved April 15, 2019 from
https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/npao/pdf/tips-for-teachers.pdf
Healthy People 2020 Nutrition and Weight status retrieved April 14, 2019 from
https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/nutrition-and-weight-status
Ohio Revised code retrieved April 10, 2019
USDA Food and Nutrition Services Team Nutrition. Retrieved April 11, 2019 from
https://www.fns.usda.gov/tn/serving-myplate-yummy-curriculum