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Students Return to School Amid Childhood Obesity Crisis; Governor Urged to Make "Wellness Committees" Mandatory in Schools

Press Release

Kids in Cafeteria

[Hartford, Connecticut, August 30, 2005] Prompted by Gov. M. Jodi Rell's veto of the School Nutrition Bill amid continuously rising rates of childhood obesity, Environment and Human Health, Inc. (EHHI) and local health departments are calling on the governor to make "Wellness Committees" mandatory in schools.

To be effective, wellness committees should include school principals, business managers, food service directors, cafeteria staff, physical education teachers, nutrition teachers, school nurses and parents, along with students of middle or high school age. These committees should evaluate the nutrition and physical activity environments in their school districts and then make recommendations for improvements.

It will be important for parents to be involved because they recognize that good nutrition and adequate physical education are key components in creating healthy and productive individuals. Parents and school administrators can be catalysts for seeing that the wellness committees are formed in schools in a timely way.

"Although a large portion of learned behavior in the area of nutrition occurs in the home, schools are an important influence on the decisions and choices that children make," says Bill Blitz, director of health for the North Central District Health Department. "When vending machines and vending contracts are used to produce needed revenue for school systems, possible conflicts arise that must be addressed. It is critical to chronic disease prevention for schools and parents to see what foods children are exposed to and how they can improve their eating choices."

EHHI's report, The State of Nutrition and Physical Activity in Our Schools, showed that both the state of school nutrition and the level of physical activity in most schools were extraordinarily deficient. Food was available in the schools for much of the day while physical activity levels fell far below the national recommended levels.

At the elementary school level, 55 percent of the schools in the study offered physical education once a week, while not a single school in the study provided more than two classes per week.

In the middle schools, one-quarter of the schools provided only one semester of physical education or offered classes on a three- to five-week rotational basis. Students could go for four or five months with no physical activity whatsoever at school. Middle school students received less than half the nationally recommended amount of physical education.

In high schools, students could go for as long as three consecutive years without physical education.

EHHI found that food comes into the schools from many different sources. Cupcakes are brought in for birthdays, school fund-raisers sell candy items and cookies, cakes arrive for bake sales, and classrooms hold parties. There are many school-operated vending machines; food is given as a reward to students for academic achievement and good behavior; chocolate candy and lollipops sold as fund-raisers are available in school and are often eaten by students during the school day.

While food is frequently used as a reward, the loss of recess or playground time is often used as a punishment for undesirable behavior.

Corporations have infiltrated Connecticut's schools. Not only are there Coke and Pepsi vending machines in our high schools—as many as 15 vending machines in some of them—many corporations are now marketing to children in schools by distributing their food items as a reward. In one grammar school, Dunkin' Donuts provided free donuts to students who had completed a certain percentage of their homework assignments. The treats were handed out at lunchtime before the students even got into the lunch line.

Leslie Balch, health director of the Quinnipiack Valley Health District, showed her concern over the present situation by saying, "School nurses and teachers are seeing more and more students that are now requiring diabetic management. This fact is very worrisome and we must reverse this trend."

" It is time for the state to mandate requirements for healthy food and adequate levels of physical activity in our schools," says Nancy Alderman, president of EHHI.

Susan Addiss, director of Health Education for EHHI and past commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Public Health, says, "Schoolchildren today will face the prospect of having shorter life spans than their parents might expect if measures are not taken soon to arrest the overweight and obesity crisis."

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