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Illinois School Board Journal
July/August 2007

David Satcher, 16th U.S. Surgeon General and founding chair of Action for Healthy Kids, is the director of the Center of Excellence on Health Disparities at Morehouse School of Medicine.

The opening bell of the 2006-07 school year signaled a new era in the ongoing fight against childhood obesity. Under the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act, the majority of public school districts in the United States began implementing local wellness policies intended to promote healthier eating and increased physical activity among our nation's children.

A laudable first step, these policies are, in fact, analogous to an architect's rendering of a new house. No matter how good the plan looks on paper, translating the vision into reality requires lots of hard work.

The job now before our school districts and schools is a most crucial one — turning the policies into sustainable action. This means increasing access to and choices of nutritious foods and beverages along with integrating nutrition education into the curriculum for students in all grades. Policy implementation requires goals for improving physical activity with changes that include quality physical education courses, daily recess and more after-school opportunities.

Addressing this historic wellness challenge is not something that schools need to tackle alone. All of us who care deeply about the success and future of children need to strengthen our resolve to support schools throughout the entire process of changing school practices in nutrition and physical activity.

While many districts' policies were enacted on time and meet the federal wellness policy mandate requirements, many others fall short. According to an evaluation completed by Action for Healthy Kids including 112 local wellness policies from 42 states, only half met the mandate's minimum requirements. This finding reminds us that many districts and schools need assistance in order to develop and then implement the best policy possible.

The current push for school wellness brings us to a crucial juncture in the battle against childhood obesity. Will these new policies come to life and take student wellness to a whole new level, or will these documents sit on the proverbial shelf?

Local adoption of a wellness policy is an important victory; however, we can not afford complacency. The same partners who came together to craft these local wellness policies — parents, school administrators, school nutrition and physical education professionals, school board members, students and community leaders — must again step forward to ensure successful implementation.

Our nation simply cannot afford to let this opportunity pass. The epidemic of overweight among our children is causing more children to develop adult disease risk factors such as elevated blood pressure and blood cholesterol and type 2 diabetes — something once referred to as adult-onset diabetes. Seventy to 80 percent of overweight children and teens become overweight adults. With 60 percent of adults today being overweight or obese, we must do everything possible to change the course. If we do not, our current generation of youth may indeed be the first to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents.

These new policies, if implemented fully, have the potential to help create a lasting "culture of wellness" in every school building, and in every classroom in America. Fulfilling this vision of healthy learning environments will require an ongoing commitment, and sheer will on the part of many:

• School administrators and local school boards that not only implement their wellness policies, but also track and strengthen them.
• Schools that continue to actively engage staff, students, parents and the community in promoting wellness.
• Parents who are involved with their children's nutrition and physical activity both at school and, just as importantly, at home.
• Communities, along with for-profits and nonprofits, that reach out to schools and provide resources, expertise and encouragement.
• Industries that make student wellness a top priority.

To assist schools, parents and communities in meeting these challenges, Action for Healthy Kids launched its "Campaign for School Wellness." This effort includes a broad range of resources and tools backed by a public-private partnership of more than 55 national organizations and government agencies representing education, health, fitness, and nutrition, along with more than 6,000 volunteers in all 50 states and D.C.

Today's schools are working harder than ever to respond to an unprecedented number of challenges and pressures. To help ensure that this new wellness mandate makes a measurable impact on student success, we must continue partnering with schools, and contributing our talents, time and ideas.

Our children deserve the best learning environment that we can give them — after all, healthy students do learn better. By continuing to work together, our vision for a new era of school wellness can indeed become reality.

Editor's note

Now nearing its fifth anniversary, Action for Healthy Kids has as its sole mission addressing the epidemic of overweight, sedentary and undernourished youth by focusing on changes in schools. A copy of its publication, "A Mission Becomes a Mandate: Campaign for School Wellness," can be downloaded free at www.actionforhealthykids.org.