Case Study: Idaho Physical Activity & Nutrition Program

(First in a series of blog posts featuring Red Sky client case studies)

Situation
Our children’s health is a hot topic nationally. You cannot turn on a news program or read a newspaper without hearing how overweight our nation’s children are becoming. If you haven’t heard, this generation will be the first to die before their parents (or at least have a shorter life expectancy).

Idaho is no exception. Statistics show:

• 11.8% of Idaho children and adolescents ages 2-19 are obese (CDC)
• 82% of Idaho high school students consumed less than the recommended 5 servings of fruit and vegetables a day in 2009 (2009 YRBS)
• One in five (20%) students bought at least part of their lunch from a vending machine during one or more of the weeks prior to the survey (2009 YRBS)

In 2010, Red Sky was contracted by the Idaho Physical Activity & Nutrition Program (IPAN) through the Department of Health and Welfare to help combat the trend and conduct outreach to Idaho schools regarding grand funding available for Idaho schools/districts willing to institute policy changes regarding foods and beverages vended and sold – through avenues outside of the USDA breakfast and lunch programs – during school hours.

Opportunity
IPAN staff realized there was a gap in what schools are teaching about health and nutrition and the environments and policies related to vending and “competitive foods” (foods offered during the school day outside of the USDA’s school breakfast and lunch programs) that had been established within the schools themselves.  After receiving funding from the CDC, IPAN staff and Red Sky set out to identify the best path for helping Idaho schools/districts create environments that make the healthy choice the easy choice.

Strategy
In order to encourage participation in the pilot program, Red Sky led a coordinated outreach program to Superintendents, Principals and PTA/PTO organizations across each of Idaho’s School Districts via letters, emails and updates in the State Department of Education’s weekly newsletter.

In order to ensure that schools/districts that applied were serious about making policy-level changes and implementing the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Standards for foods and beverages offered through vending, school stores, a la carte lines and other “competitive food” avenues, the application required signatures from both the principal and the superintendant of the district.

After review of the applications, Soda Springs, Jefferson County (in Rigby) and Richfield School Districts were selected to receive funding. Like the majority of Idaho districts, these three are relatively small and in predominantly rural communities – providing an excellent chance to learn how small districts with limited funds can create and sustain changes that will positively impact the overall health and performance of students.

Red Sky visited each of the districts to discuss the plans they had for their funding, to outline the changes that would be expected as part of the funding, to ensure that each district understood the standards that they would be implementing in the 2011-2012 school year, taste-test foods that meet the IOM Standards and to begin to help the schools pull together the action plan IPAN and CDC required in order to receive their funds.

In an effort to make this change as easy as possible for the schools, Red Sky (in conjunction with our dietician partners Sue Linja and Dara Jezierny) developed two important tools:

• Allowable Foods List (a “living” document of foods that meet the per serving/as packaged calorie, sugar, salt and fat requirements outlined by the IOM)
• IOM Calculation “Cheat Sheet” (a reference sheet for reading food and beverage labels and how to do the math)

In early November, Red Sky facilitated the mandatory collaborative conference call in order to check in with each of the schools/districts regarding where they stood against their action plans, discuss progress and challenges with each other and answer any questions. We anticipated that schools may be having a difficult time finding items that met the IOM standards. What we heard was that by taking the Allowable Foods List and the Cheat Sheet on their shopping trips, they have been able to find items that meet the requirements relatively easily.

Another victory was that every district was able to revise their policy and have it approved by their School Board and Superintendant without any difficulty, demonstrating that these districts are serious about making sustainable changes to benefit the health of their students.

While each of the districts was expected to modify their existing wellness policies to require all vended and competitive foods served during school hours to meet the IOM Standards, each has taken a different approach to their activities for creating the environmental change.

Soda Springs High School
In Soda Springs, funding is being used to purchase a refrigerated vending machine (for the high school) that will stock fruits and veggies, low-fat milk, low-fat yogurt and other nutritious options.  Other activities include:

• Student taste-testing via Health and Occupational Living classes
• “Golden Tickets” through vending purchases – providing students not in the Health and/or Occupational Living classes the opportunity to “win” a spot in the taste-testing
• Changes to foods offered at Parent Nights, Open Houses and other functions
• Tracking revenue and what items are selling vs. what aren’t
• Changing options in current vending machine to meet IOM Standards

Jefferson County Joint School District
Jefferson County’s action plan is focused on improving nutrition standards for all vending and competitive foods options available in each elementary, middle and high schools with in the district. Activities include:

• Evaluation of current food and beverage options vended and available within school stores and a la carte lines
• Removal of all items that do not meet IOM standards
• Monthly tracking compliance of vending and school stores
• Conducting student surveys and taste testing for healthy food choices
• Including non-food options for sale in school store environments

Richfield School District
Richfield’s action plan allows for student engagement through:

• A student-led nutrition fair
• Blind taste-tests with students and parent to determine items meeting IOM standards that are popular
• Education of students, parents and teachers regarding healthy nutrition options (through school newsletters)
• Implementation of healthy snack offerings through lunchroom snack line

Results
While the results of the pilot won’t be realized until the end of the 2011-2012 school year, the ultimate goal is to have these schools/districts implement policy change, develop the environment to support the new policy and be able to sustain the changes beyond the grant-funding cycle. Prior to the end of the 2011-2012 school year, Red Sky will conduct site visits, develop collateral for educating Idaho school districts on how to institute policy and environmental change in their schools and collect success stories to serve as a model for future efforts in creating environments that support making the healthy choice the easy choice.

- Jenn Connor