# Presentation: 393761

## Healthier US School Challenge

## Promoting a Healthy School Environment

- Recognize a school’s commitment
- Taking a leadership role
- Improving nutritional quality of meals served
- Providing more nutritious choices
- Providing opportunities for nutrition education    and physical activity

**Notes:**
The HealthierUS School Challenge was developed by USDA to recognize  schools committed to the health and well-being of its students. 

We all are aware that obesity is a growing concern for school children in the United States. USDA believes that schools should be taking a leadership role in helping students learn to make healthy eating and active lifestyle choices. 

Many schools have already made changes to their school nutrition environments to improve the quality of foods served; USDA wants to encourage schools to achieve such results, therefore it has established the HealthierUS School Challenge to recognize those who have made the commitment and achieved nutrition excellence in their schools, as demonstrated by:

Taking a leadership role in making changes in their school’s nutrition environment;
Improving the nutritional quality of school meals; 
Limiting student access to other food and beverages that contribute to the nutritional well-being of the students; and
Providing opportunities for nutrition education and physical activity.

## How Does It Work?  

- Voluntary program
- Schools must meet or exceed criteria
- Apply for Bronze, Silver or Gold certification
- Certified for 2 years following certification

**Notes:**
USDA is targeting elementary schools.

This is a voluntary program and any individual elementary school that meets the HealthierUS School Challenge criteria may apply, on a voluntary basis, for either Bronze, Silver or Gold certification, depending on how the school meets the criteria.

The certification is for the current school year as well as the following two school years. Certified schools are strongly encouraged to continue their commitment and re-apply at the end of their certification period.

## Criteria

- Be an elementary school
- Be a Team Nutrition School
- Offer reimbursable lunches that demonstrate healthy menu planning practices and meet USDA nutrition standards
- Provide nutrition education

**Notes:**
Let’s review the criteria—

In order to be certified as Bronze or Silver award winner, a school must meet a basic set of criteria.  A school must:

 Be an elementary school.  Initially we want to concentrate on young children whose food and beverage preferences are first being established in their school environment.
 Be enrolled as a TN school; the school can check to see if it’s currently enrolled or enroll during the application process
 Offer reimbursable lunches that demonstrate healthy menu planning practices and principles of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and that meet USDA nutrition standards; we’ll review this criteria in greater depth in just a moment.
 Provide nutrition education to students in multiple grades
 At least half, but no fewer then 2 of the grade levels of the school
 Delivered as part of a structured and systematic unit of instruction, and
 Involve multiple levels of communication (classroom, school, cafeteria,   home,  etc.)

AND....

## Criteria (cont’d)

- Provide opportunity for physical activity
- Maintain an ADP of at least 70% for Silver or Gold, 62% for Bronze
- Adhere to USDA nutrition standards for foods and beverages served/sold

**Notes:**
 Provide students the opportunity for physical activity.  Physical education classes or the equivalent must be provided on a regularly scheduled basis each school week during the entire school year (equivalent examples: school walking clubs, bike clubs, intramural sports; see page 4 of the criteria).

 Maintain a student Average Daily Participation of at least 70% of student enrollment for reimbursable lunches (This figure was selected because the average daily participation in elementary schools, included in a national sample from the School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study III, 2007, was 73%.) The new Bronze award requires at least 62% participation.

 Adhere to USDA nutrition standards for foods and beverages served/sold in competition with school meals during meal periods in the foodservice area.

## Lunch Menu Weekly Criteria

- 3 fruits/5 vegetables
- Dark green/orange fruit or vegetable
- Fresh fruit/raw vegetable
- Vitamin C
- Whole grain foods

- 4 different entrées or meat/meat alternate; limit higher fat entrées
- Dried beans/peas
- Iron
- Lowfat/nonfat milk

**Notes:**
Now, let’s take a minute to look more closely at the lunch menu criteria for a Bronze or Silver school. A separate Lunch Menu Worksheet has been prepared for schools to use in assessing whether their menus meet the criteria 

3 different fruits and 5 different vegetables are offered weekly.
Weekly menus include a dark green or  orange vegetable or fruit 3 or more times per week;
 A fresh fruit or raw vegetable is offered 3 or more times per school week;
 Menus include a good source of Vitamin C each day;
 A whole grain food is offered at least 3 times per week;
 4 different entrées or meat/meat alternates are offered each week.  If no choices, limit higher fat entrées to once a week (≤40% of calories from fat);
 Cooked dried beans or peas are offered at least once a week;
 Menus provide 2 or more sources of iron per day; and
 Lowfat or nonfat milk is offered daily.

A list of FAQs that goes into much more detail has been prepared and is posted to the Healthier US School Challenge web site (www.fns.usda.gov/tn).

It is important to note that the menu criteria emphasize foods that the 2005 Dietary Guidelines focuses on.  We want schools to adhere to the Dietary Guidelines in their menus.  

Keep in mind too that it is also more likely that schools will meet the SMI standards if they meet the HealthierUS School Challenge criteria.

## Criteria for Competitive Foods

- Any fruit or non-fried vegetable
- Reduced fat, lowfat, nonfat milk
- 100% juice
- Water

- Other food/beverage:
- ≤35% of calories from fat
- ≤10% of calories from saturated fat
- ≤35% total sugar
- A la carte portion size not to exceed NSLP portion
- Individual packages not to exceed 200 calories

**Notes:**
In addition to school meals, schools that receive Bronze or Silver certification must agree to either sell no competitive foods (a la carte, vended, school stores, etc.) during meal service OR if they do sell competitive foods, they must meet these criteria:

 Any fruit or non-fried vegetable listed in the Food Buying Guide is approved for sale;
 Reduced fat (2%) Lowfat (1%) or nonfat (0.5% or less) milk, 100% full-strength fruit and vegetable juices, and plain water are the only approved beverages;
 Any other food or beverage (in addition to fruits, non-fried vegetables and approved beverages) must meet these standards:
≤35% of calories from fat
 ≤10% of calories from saturated fat
 ≤35% total sugar, by weight
 Portion size for items sold a la carte are not to exceed portion size normally served in the National School Lunch Program; for other items sold, total calories of that item are not to exceed 200 calories.

## Gold Criteria

- School meets all Bronze/Silver criteria
- Adheres to USDA nutrition standards about competitive foods *throughout the school day, anywhere on the school campus*
- Offers daily lunches with
- fresh fruit or raw vegetable
- whole grain food

**Notes:**
In order to be certified as Gold, the school must meet all of the criteria for Bronze/Silver as well as:

 Adhere to USDA nutrition standards for foods and beverages served/sold in competition with school meals throughout the school day anywhere on the school campus, and

 Offer reimbursable school lunches that also contain a fresh fruit or raw vegetable and whole grain food each day.

## Local Certification Review Panel

- Foodservice manager and district-level foodservice director
- Team Nutrition School Leader
- Parent organization representative
- A school nurse, CSH representative, PE or classroom teacher
- School Principal or Administrator

**Notes:**
A local certification review panel must be established to evaluate the school against the HealthierUS School Challenge criteria to ensure it meets the criteria for the Gold or Silver certification. This local panel, at a minimum, must include:

 The school or site foodservice manager
 The district school foodservice director
 The Team Nutrition School Leader
	Note – in small SFA, these might be the same person.
 A representative from the school’s Parent Organization, such as PTA;
 At least one of the following:
 School nurse, 
 Coordinated School Health representative, 
 PE or classroom teacher, and
 The school’s principal or administrator.

## Application Packet

- Step 1
- Local Review Panel evaluation
- Step 2
- State Agency evaluation

**Notes:**
The school’s completed application packet must be evaluated and signed by the local review panel and endorsed by the School Principal or Administrator.  This is Step 1.

## State Agency Validation

- The Application Packet is complete
- Submitted menus meet criteria
- SFA has completed SMI review activities;  no outstanding CRE audit issues or claims
- Nutrition education and physical activity
- ADP at least 70% of enrollment (62% for Bronze)
- Foods and beverages meet criteria

**Notes:**
The State Agency will confirm that:

The Application Packet is complete;
The submitted menus from the school meet the menu criteria for either the Bronze, Silver or Gold certification;
The School Food Authority has completed all improvement activities as a result of an SMI review; no CRE audit issues or claims;
Opportunities for nutrition education and physical activity exist; 
The student ADP meets or exceeds 70% of enrollment for Silver and Gold or 62% for Bronze; and 
The foods or beverages sold/served meet the standards for award.

## Application Packet

- Step 3
- State submits application to FNS    Regional Office
- Step 4
- Region reviews and submits application to FNS Headquarters

**Notes:**
After verifying that the school meet the established criteria, the State agency will submit the signed form to the FNS Regional Office for review. FNS Headquarters will then review all completed applications 

## Recognition

- School receives a plaque and banner
- School is recognized on the Team Nutrition website
- Special event held at
-    most schools/districts

**Notes:**
After review and acceptance of a completed application, FNS will award schools that have successfully met the Challenge with an appropriate renewable recognition plaque and banner.  In addition, the recognized schools will be listed on the Team Nutrition website as Gold, Silver or Bronze-certified schools.

## HealthierUS School Challenge

- Application Packet,
- Criteria & Instructions,
- Frequently Asked Questions,
- and Resources:

**teamnutrition.usda.gov**
**Click on “Healthy Schools”**

**Notes:**

All of the current information on the Challenge: the application packet, criteria and instructions, frequently asked questions, and resources are  available for downloading from the team nutrition website.

As we give awards we are also adding the names of the award-winning schools to the website.

Please check it out.