| School
Nutrition Services Professionals
Take
the Challenge Tips – Getting Started
Take
the Challenge
- Role
Model healthy choices.
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Make cafeterias welcome and inviting.
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Provide enough time for kids to eat.
- Provide
a FUN “learning” laboratory for
healthy choices.
-
Develop kids' preferences for a variety of foods.
- Involve
kids and others in tasting new foods and menu
decision making within healthy guidelines.
- Make
healthy foods attractive and appealing without
barriers such as long lines.
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Happy,
healthy kids enjoying great tasting food! It’s
a picture every person who is a part of school meals
would like to post on their bulletin board!
- Join
the KidLink™ team and build support. Help others
understand the benefits and challenges of School Nutrition
Services.
- Encourage
others to promote schools meals in thought, word,
and deed. Present your successes at board meetings.
- Learn
more from kids, e.g. what, in your school or program,
adds or detracts from food appeal. Things that add
appeal include:
- Bright,
colorful, cafeterias that appeal as a place to
eat.
-
Quick access to foods…less time waiting
in line.
- Form
a student advisory group (S.A.G.), or use the existing
group to learn more from kids. Have the student advisory
group conduct surveys and develop ideas within the
parameters you need to set.
- Make
the cafeteria and your expertise a part of the kid’s
learning laboratory:
-
Use bulletin boards to send healthy messages.
-
Incorporate theme days frequently. Ask for help
from art teachers, student groups, and the KidLink™
team to help decorate and market these promotion
days.
-
Create nutrition education displays in the cafeteria
with things that get kids’ attention…pictures,
bright colors, and moving parts!
-
Be a part of health fairs and parent events.
-
Collaborate with teachers and others to present
classroom lessons.
AWE-some
school meals!
School
Meal Programs Make a Difference Every Day in Many
Ways!
School meals staff are VIP’s for all the
"healthy habits" they impact! You have
the power to make the cafeteria a great place
to educate kids about healthy eating.
It’s a “win” for you
and “win” for healthy kids!
Fun activities in the cafeteria = increased
knowledge about making healthy choices + increased
interest in school meals
Healthy Habit Shapers
Wow! With all these “healthy habit shapers”,
it is not difficult to recognize the importance
of school meal KidLink™
team members.
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Conduct
Surveys
What’s
a S.A.G. to do?
Consider
one or all of the following!
• Conduct Surveys
• Develop and present displays
• Create bulletin boards
• Coordinate a cookbook
• Present healthy happenings at PTA
or school board
meetings
Resource
School Nutrition Association S.A.G. handbook:
www.schoolnutrition.org
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Develop
kids’ leadership skills and increase the amount
of feedback!
- Have
S.A.G. members work with the food service director
to help develop survey questions they will use to
get information from classmates!
-
Combine the survey with
a classroom lesson about the importance of surveys.
-
Involve the S.A.G. group in determining how the survey
information will be used.
-
Have S.A.G. members tell
their classmates how the survey information will be
used so that kids recognize how their feedback matters.
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