School Nutrition Policies in Prince Edward Island

Dr Jennifer TaylorAssociate ProfessorDepartment of Family & Nutritional SciencesCo-Chair, PEI Healthy Eating Alliance

Where it all began…

2002 2005

2003

Elementary School Nutrition Policy Full Full ImplementationImplementation

2006

Elementary School Nutrition Policy DevelopmentDevelopment

PEI Timeline: Elementary School Nutrition Policy Development, Implementation and

Evaluation

School Food Survey

2001

Children’s food survey

School Food Survey

Tremblay & Willms

Report on Childhood Obesity

Ont vs PEI survey

School policy adherence

In 2002, PEI Children Had Poor Eating Habits

Too little: Milk Products, Vegetables & Fruit

Too much: Soft drinks French fries

High fat/sugary snacks

Evers, Taylor, Manske, & Midgett, 2001; Taylor, Bradley, & Peacock, 2003

Before PEI had nutrition policies in schools (2002)…

68% sold regular hot dogs >90% sold pepperoni pizza,

chicken nuggets 67% that had canteens sold

chips 4/5 foods in vending machines

were unhealthy 54% schools used food for

fundraising

It is critical that schoolsare not part of the

“obesigenic environment”

Elementary Nutrition Policy Development:From the Bottom Up

Dept Health contracted with HEA to develop policies

Schools without cafeterias

School district level 17 “Lead” schools

across the province

Grass roots

Decision makers

New Policy

Allowing Schools to Talk and Have Input Throughout the Process…

Increased Ownership AND started the change process: “Thank you for listening and I really hope this is

something you could help us turn into policy and action.”

“It was great to see how other schools deal with these issues.”

“[We appreciated]….the interaction between other schools and realizing that the same problems are everywhere.”

Allowing Schools to Talk and Have Input Throughout the Process…

Increased “expert” understanding of the school change process

Helped identify policy elements most likely to make a difference AND most likely to be implementable

“.....I don’t think we can make drastic changes, I think it’s a process, I think we need to keep working and make a few changes....it’s a process of 2-3-4 years for schools...because it’s better slowly...than to go quickly and then miss the boat...”

Principal, from Freeze, 2006.

PEI Elementary Policy Elements

Same policy was adopted 2005/06 by all 3 school districts (province wide)

Elements: 1. Nutrition Education 2. Student Access to food 3. Quality of Food Available

Availability of Healthy Food Choices

4 food based lists Why?

No cafeterias; volunteer lunch programs/canteens

Concern that complicated policies would impede adherence

Avoid complete bans on foods (Satter approach)

Support for Implementation

Support for Implementation

Challenges: Role clarification needed: HEA vs School

Districts Inadequate staff resources

No community dietitians assigned to schools

Sustainability of networking meetings: costly due to teacher substitute fees

What?!...An “F”??

But…positive change is already happeningCanteens: 2002 vs.2005

66.7

33.3

12.5

33.3

4.2

56.3

35.7 38.5

58.3

83.3

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Chips Cer Bar Yogurt J uice Milk Ch

2002 2005

**

*

* p<0.05 ** p<0.001

Foods Sold at Lunch: 2002-2005

67.7

90.6

33.338.2

91.2

38.2

Hot Dogs Pizza Chk nug0

20

40

60

80

100

2002 2005

*

* p<0.05

Issues

Bottom up approach has been effective re: “buy in”

Bottom up + top down needed Policy revision, then

provincial adoption Funding,

sustainability

Grass roots

Decision makers

New Policy

Conclusions

Political will, public focus on acute care an ongoing challenge

Intermediate/Senior High policies in development; will have nutrient rather than food based standards

AcknowledgementsAcknowledgements

Department of Health

Thanks to schools and teachers!Thanks to schools and teachers!