ANNOUNCEMENT
October 17, 2003
STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
TEAM NUTRITION GRANT
Connecticut PTA (CT PTA) is a partner in the State
Department of Education's TEAM NUTRITION grant. Increased rates of obesity and
diabetes among young children have heightened parents concerns about the quality
of food available to their children through school breakfast and lunch programs.
Parents have also expressed concerns about snack foods sold in vending machines,
and candies and other "junk foods" sold as fund-raisers. As a concerned TEAM
NUTRITION grant partner, CT PTA is committed to keep unit and council presidents
up-to-date on the work of this statewide initiative.
Overview:
The overall goal of Connecticut's 2003 Team Nutrition (TN)
Training Grant is to improve schools' ability to positively impact children's
healthy eating arid physical activity habits through a statewide Healthy School
Nutrition Environment (HSNE) Initiative. The HSNE Initiative will build
statewide awareness of and support for a healthy school nutrition environment
promote obesity prevention strategies for schools, motivate and empower school
leaders to take action, and provide the training, resources, and assistance
needed for successful implementation in local school districts.
The Healthy Kids Learn Better
summit is one of four components of Connecticut's Team Nutrition grant:
-
A collaborative
state position paper which presents a unified state agency/organization
approach to strategies fox obesity prevention in Connecticut's. schools, and
provides practical guidelines and policy recommendations to school districts for
promoting healthy weight for all students.
-
A Promoting
Healthy Weight in Schools Summit, which will build statewide awareness of
and support for developing and implementing obesity prevention strategies in
schools, motivate and empower school leaders to take action, and provide the
training and resources needed for successful implementation in local school
districts.
-
Stipends for local
school districts to develop, adopt and implement school policies that
promote healthy eating and physical activity, and foster a supportive healthy
school environment.
-
A healthy vending
and snack sales pilot project that serves as a state model for providing
healthy food choices without negatively impacting profitability, coupled with
the development of a Healthy Vending and Snack Sales Action Guide to promote the
Dietary Guidelines 2000 for foods and beverages sold in the school community.
Summit Goals:
The Team Nutrition grant's focus for the summit is to improve
schools' ability to impact children's healthy eating and physical activity
habits. We hope to build statewide awareness of and support for developing and
implementing obesity prevention strategies, motivate and empower school leaders
to take action, and provide the training and resources needed for successful
implementation in local school districts.
For More Information:
