5. Engage Parents

Schools can’t change students’ exercise and eating habits by themselves. Parents and other caregivers must support the school’s healthy snack and fundraising policies, and reinforce healthy behaviors at home. That is why it is essential to engage parents and other caregivers in school wellness programs from the start. They must also be encouraged to participate in wellness-related programs offered by the school and reinforce healthy behaviors at home. Schools have an opportunity to educate parents, so that they will be more inclined to send healthy lunches, snacks and treats to school with their child and pursue healthier habits at home. In addition, parents can be a powerful force to help advocate for policies, programs and funding for healthy schools.

Challenges

[Top]

Parents have other priorities with respect to changing the school environment – school funding, class size, academic curricula, arts programming and a host of other issues vie with school wellness for the public's time and attention. Those parents who are passionate about school health may be deeply committed to promoting certain practices (e.g., use of 100% organic foods) and may be unwilling to compromise their standards to accommodate other perspectives. It's no news that time is also a problem – families are stretched by very hectic schedules. In addition to parents’ work schedules, many children are committed to multiple extra-curricular activities, plus homework, leaving little time for school-sponsored wellness programs. In order to compete, schools will have to find enjoyable and entertaining ways to engage families in wellness programming.

Standards

[Top]

There are no standards for parent engagement, but the National Parent Teacher Association offers a number of resources and tools that schools can use to engage parents in school wellness. See the Box or visit Documents and Resources for more information.

THINGS PTAs CAN DO TO IMPROVE STUDENT NUTRITION

from the Healthy Lifestyles at Home and School notebook, created by the national PTA in partnership with Parents' Action for Children.

Make copies of the handouts provided in this notebook and distribute them to parents in your school.

Make Healthy Lifestyles at Home and School a focus of your PTA meetings.

Help make school dining facilities appealing to students. Take a look at your cafeteria. Is it a nice place to eat? Ask your kids what they think of the room. Is it dark or sunny? Are the seats comfortable? If the walls are drab, ask your school's art teachers to have students create artwork (featuring healthy foods) for the walls. Or ask your principal for permission to have a PTA painting party, and paint murals on the walls.

Suggest selling bottled water at the school store, front desk and all school events.

Eat with the kids: Go in one day and join kids at lunch. (Ask your school for permission first.) Pack a healthy lunch or eat what the kids eat. Find out what choices are available at your school, and what they taste like. What do kids pick from the menus, how long do they have to wait in line, and how much time do they have to eat?

Make sure your school participates in the School Breakfast, National School Lunch and After School Snack programs. If your school does not participate in these programs, encourage school leaders to do so.

Meet with the food service staff at your school and learn about their daily challenges in preparing meals and their suggestions for healthy improvements. Write their ideas down.

Use the PTA Fact-Finding Project to assess your school's health. For example, take inventory of the number of vending machines on campus and the kinds of foods they contain. Also take notes on what is for sale in your school store or in other places on or near campus. Are there fast-food restaurants nearby?

Talk to students about the food at school. They will definitely have opinions about the time they eat lunch, whether they are rushed, what the food is like, and what they would like to see changed. It's important to get students’ support for healthy changes in the school environment.

Armed with all the information you have gathered, speak up about what changes are needed. Enlist the help and support of your principal, the school food service staff, and teachers for making improvements in your school's “nutrition environment.” With the strength of the PTA behind you, you can make a big difference and change your school for the better.

For links to additional materials and tools for parents, see Documents and Resources.

Guiding Principles

[Top]

(Click on any of the items listed below to read more)

Include parents on the team

It is important that parents be represented on the School Wellness Team by one or more individuals, in particular when developing the school wellness policy and/or plan. At least one parent who is involved with the PTA or PTO should be recruited to the Wellness Team, so they can help rally support among other parents. This will help extend the effort beyond those parents who are passionate about school health to bring in a broader, more balanced perspective of community need.

Be sensitive

While there is growing awareness about childhood obesity, parents don’t want to feel that their child is being singled out for this problem – or that the parents themselves are to blame. It's extremely important to approach parents sensitively and without wagging a finger at them about their child's (or their own) lifestyle. Some schools have used weigh-ins and body-mass-index assessment (BMI) to identify obese or at-risk students, and have even sent home health “report cards” based on this data. These kinds of strategies have great potential to offend parents and turn them off to the wellness program. The school would be better served approaching parents in a sensitive, collaborative, solution-oriented manner.

Respect cultures and traditions

Different cultures and traditions may have different definitions of what's healthy and schools should respect those definitions. Communities and hence their schools are increasingly diverse, so it's unwise to try to impose a single standard on everyone, regardless of the ethnic, religious or economic background. In fact, engaging students in sharing foods and activities reflecting their heritage is a good way to unite families and schools while promoting healthier lifestyles.

Expect resistance

Birthday cupcakes, Halloween candy and pizza parties are a treasured part of childhood for many parents, especially those who have fond memories of them from their own childhoods. Parents may resist any effort they see as excluding these items from school and there might even be a backlash from some. But times have changed, and the amount and kind of foods available to children are vastly different than 30 or 40 years ago. It's important to make clear that the wellness policy is a voluntary effort for the good of all children, and further, that schools don’t want to end the fun, just introduce greater balance into the school food environment. That's why it's important not to ban all treats but rather to increase the proportion of healthy items available to students during the school day.

Provide information and support

Change is hard, and everyone needs information and support to do things differently – in particular if it means giving up a cherished tradition. Offering educational sessions, sending home handouts, including updates on the school wellness program in the school newsletter and website, and making the school nurse available to counsel families are all good ways to help parents and children without being too heavy-handed.

Action Areas

[Top]

(Click on any of the items listed below to read more)

Educate parents

Don’t assume that all parents are up to speed on the connection between nutrition, exercise, student health and learning. The best place to start is by educating them about how children's eating and exercise habits shape health and academic performance. An informal session, hosted by the school nurse, local nutritionist and/or healthcare provider could be a good way to kick off your parent engagement efforts. Provide plenty of information about how parents can improve health habits at home and improve the quality of food sent from home for lunches, daily snacks and celebrations. Handy Tip Sheets that schools can hand out to parents can be found in Documents and Resources, along with links to other educational materials.

FAMILY EATING PATTERN

by The American Heart Association

Energy (calories) should be adequate to support growth and development and to reach or maintain desirable body weight.

Eat foods low in saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, salt (sodium), and added sugars.

Keep total fat intake between 30 to 35% of calories for children two to three years of age and between 25 to 35% of calories for children and adolescents four to 18 years of age, with most fats coming from sources of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids, such as fish, nuts and vegetable oils.

Choose a variety of foods to get enough carbohydrates, protein and other nutrients.

Eat only enough calories to maintain a healthy weight for your height and build. Be physically active for at least 60 minutes a day.

Serve whole-grain/high-fiber breads and cereals rather than refined grain products. Look for “whole grain” as the first ingredient on the food label and make at least half your grain servings whole grain. Recommended grain intake ranges from two oz./day for a one-year-old to seven oz./day for a 14–18-year-old boy.

Serve a variety of fruits and vegetables daily, while limiting juice intake. Each meal should contain at least one fruit or vegetable. Children's recommended fruit intake ranges from one cup/day, between ages one and 3, to two cups for a 14–18-year-old boy. Recommended vegetable intake ranges from ¾ cup a day at age one to three cups for a 14–18-year-old boy.

Introduce and regularly serve fish as an entrée. Avoid commercially fried fish.

Serve fat-free and low-fat dairy foods. From ages 1–8, children need two cups of milk or its equivalent each day. Children ages 9–18 need three cups.

Don’t overfeed. Estimated calories needed by children range from 900/day for a 1-year-old to 1,800 for a 14–18-year-old girl and 2,200 for a 14–18-year-old boy.

This eating pattern supports a child's normal growth and development. It provides enough total energy and meets or exceeds the recommended daily allowances for all nutrients for children and adolescents, including iron and calcium. For more information, visit AHA's Dietary Guidelines for Healthy Children.

Provide opportunities for healthy activity

Schools are great settings for hosting fun, healthy activities for the whole family. Family cooking classes, healthy eating fairs and sports/games are great ways to impart health and fitness information while offering opportunities for families to have fun together. In fact, many families are looking for these kinds of opportunities, and will welcome well-coordinated efforts that lift the burden of planning off of them. Additionally, get to know the parents in your school. Their professions and hobbies might be centered around wellness and they may be persuaded to volunteer to put together a school-based effort, such as a cooking class, yoga session or fitness demonstration. The school nurse can work together with the PTA to help plan and promote these activities. For a tip sheet on possible Healthy School-Family Activities, see Documents and Resources.

Engage parents as advocates

Parents can be an important and potent force for change. Well-organized and coordinated parent efforts have been known to change school policy, increase school funding and help secure important school legislation at the local, state and national levels. Schools can effectively engage parents in their advocacy efforts by including them on the School Wellness Team, as well as encouraging them to speak out on specific issues that contribute to school wellness, such as PE funding, scheduling of lunch and recess, nutrition education requirements, and so on. For more information on organizing parents and other grassroots groups, see Documents and Resources.

Increase institutional commitment

Developing widespread and formal institutional commitment to student health and fitness is another way to ensure the long-term success of your school wellness program. Creating a Wellness Team, conducting an assessment, developing a wellness plan, evaluating results and celebrating success are important steps for developing a long-term commitment in your school. For more information and step-by-step guidance, see Long-term Success. Also check out Documents and Resources for more helpful information.

Back to Encourage Staff Wellness

Home