School Wellness Policies

Federal guidelines required that all schools participating in federal school meal programs establish Wellness Policies prior to the 2006-07 school year. These policies are to address nutrition, nutrition education, and physical activity. Since they must include public participation, they present a great opportunity for community involvement in all three areas.

The Farm to School group has been in contact with the public schools in the county on development of their policies, and will continue to offer assistance in implementation. We worked specifically with the Durango 9R District and provided suggested provisions regarding:

• including local foods in school menus
• including local agricultural knowledge in nutrition and agricultural education
• including farm tours, farm presentations, cooking classes, tastings, and school gardens in the experiential aspects of curriculum.

These were incorporated into the 9R policy listed below.

Background: For excellent information on wellness policies in general including a sample policy, see the Center for Ecoliteracy site at www.ecoliteracy.org.

Wellness Policies in some of our local schools: We are trying to provide links to Wellness Policies in each of our local schools as they become available:

• Durango 9R Wellness Policy
• Southern Ute Academy Wellness Policy
• Ignacio School District Wellness Policy