Wellness Policy

Qualified nutrition professionals will administer the Bishop Chatard High School meal programs. As part of the school district’s responsibility to operate a food service program, we will provide continuing professional development for all nutrition professionals in schools. Per NSLP guidelines, cafeteria staff will receive the following minimum, training requirements:
Director: 12 hours, Managers 20 hours, Staff>20 hrs/wk: 4 hours, and Staff<20 hrs/wk: 6 hours.

These include, for example, foods sold outside of reimbursable school meals, such as through vending machines, cafeteria a la carte [snack] lines, fundraisers, school stores, etc.)
Bishop Chatard High School attempts will be made so that all foods and beverages sold individually outside the reimbursable school meal programs (including those sold through a la carte [snack] lines, vending machines, student stores, or fundraising activities) during the school day, or through programs for students after the school day, will meet the following nutrition and portion size standards:

• Beverages
  • Allowed: Drinks may have no more than 10 calories and fruit-based drinks must contain at least 100% juice. Milk or dairy beverages must be fat-free
  • Not allowed: soft drinks containing caloric sweeteners; sports drinks; iced teas; fruit-based drinks that contain less than 50% real fruit juice or that contain additional caloric sweeteners; beverages containing caffeine, excluding low-fat or fat-free chocolate milk (which contain trivial amounts of caffeine).
• Foods
  All foods served will be in compliance with the NSLP guidelines found here at the following link:
  Read NSLP Guidelines.
  Bishop Chatard High School will establish a weekly menu and abide to it. Parents and students will be notified of any changes or modifications to the menu. Nutritional Data, Ingredients, and allergen data is available in the following folder. View Nutritional Data
• Portion Sizes:
  The Cafeteria will control portion size by only serving according to the recommended portions – those which are provided by the manufacturer’s CN labels. These can be found in the following folder:
  View Nutritional Data

To support children’s health and school nutrition-education efforts, Bishop Chatard High School fundraising activities will strive to not involve food or will use only foods that meet the above nutrition and portion size standards for foods and beverages sold individually. Bishop Chatard High School will encourage fundraising activities that promote physical activity. The school district will make available a list of ideas for acceptable fundraising activities.

Snacks served during the school day or in after-school care or enrichment programs will make a positive contribution to children’s diets and health, with an emphasis on serving fruits and vegetables as the primary snacks and water as the primary beverage. All snacks served will be “Smart Snacks”:

• Be a grain product that contains 50 percent or more whole grains by weight (have a whole grain as the first ingredient); or
• Have as the first ingredient a fruit, a vegetable, a dairy food, or a protein food; or
• Be a combination food that contains at least ¼ cup of fruit and/or vegetable (for example, ¼ cup of raisins with enriched pretzels); and
• The food must meet the nutrient standards for calories, sodium, fats, and total sugars

Bishop Chatard High School will attempt not to use foods or beverages, especially those that do not meet the nutrition standards for foods and beverages sold individually (above), as rewards for academic performance or good behavior,10 and will not withhold food or beverages (including food served through school meals) as a punishment.

Examples: athletic events, dances, or performances, etc
Foods and beverages offered or sold at school-sponsored events outside the school day will meet the nutritional standards for meals or for foods and beverages sold individually (above)

Bishop Chatard High School goals will be to teach, encourage, and support healthy eating by students. Bishop Chatard High School will provide nutrition education and engage in nutrition promotion that:

• is offered at each grade level as part of a sequential, comprehensive, standards-based
  program designed to provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to promote and protect their health;
• is part of not only health education classes, but also classroom instruction in subjects such as math, science, language arts, social sciences, and elective subjects;
• includes enjoyable, developmentally-appropriate, culturally-relevant, participatory activities, such as contests, promotions, taste testing, farm visits, and school gardens;
• promotes fruits, vegetables, whole grain products, low-fat and fat-free dairy products, healthy food preparation methods, and health-enhancing nutrition practices;
• emphasizes caloric balance between food intake and energy expenditure (physical activity/exercise);
• links with school meal programs, other school foods, and nutrition-related community services;
• teaches media literacy with an emphasis on food marketing; and
• Includes training for teachers and other staff.

For students to receive the nationally recommended amount of daily physical activity (i.e., at least 60 minutes per day) and for students to fully embrace regular physical activity as a personal behavior, students need opportunities for physical activity beyond physical education class. Toward that end:

• classroom health education will complement physical education by reinforcing the knowledge and self-management skills needed to maintain a physically active lifestyle and to reduce time spent on sedentary activities, such as watching television;
• opportunities for physical activity will be incorporated into other subject lessons; and
• Classroom teachers will provide short physical activity breaks between lessons or classes, as appropriate.

Bishop Chatard High School will support parents’ efforts to provide a healthy diet and daily physical activity for their children. Bishop Chatard High School will offer healthy eating seminars for parents, send home nutrition information, post nutrition tips on school websites, and provide nutrient analyses of school menus. Bishop Chatard High School will encourage parents to pack healthy lunches and snacks and to refrain from including beverages and foods that do not meet the above nutrition standards for individual foods and beverages. Bishop Chatard High School will attempt to provide parents a list of foods that meet the school’s snack standards and ideas for healthy celebrations/parties, rewards, and fundraising activities. In addition, Bishop Chatard High School will provide opportunities for parents to share their healthy food practices with others in the school community.

Bishop Chatard High School will provide information about physical education and other school-based physical activity opportunities before, during, and after the school day; and support parents’ efforts to provide their children with opportunities to be physically active outside of school. Such supports will include sharing information about physical activity and physical education through a website, newsletter, or other take-home materials, special events, or physical education homework.

School-based marketing will be consistent with nutrition education and health promotion. As such, schools will limit food and beverage marketing to the promotion of foods and beverages that meet the nutrition standards for meals or for foods and beverages sold individually (above). School-based marketing of brands promoting predominantly low-nutrition foods and beverages is prohibited. The promotion of healthy foods, including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy products is encouraged.

Examples of marketing techniques include the following: logos and brand names on/in vending machines, books or curricula, textbook covers, school supplies, scoreboards, school structures, and sports equipment; educational incentive programs that provide food as a reward; programs that provide schools with supplies when families buy low-nutrition food products; in-school television, such as Channel One; free samples or coupons; and food sales through fundraising activities. Marketing activities that promote healthful behaviors (and are therefore allowable) include: vending machine covers promoting water; pricing structures that promote healthy options in a la carte lines or vending machines; sales of fruit for fundraisers; and coupons for discount gym memberships.

Bishop Chatard High School highly values the health and well-being of every staff member and will plan and implement activities (such as a staff wellness challenge) and policies that support personal efforts by staff to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Bishop Chatard High School will establish and maintain a staff wellness committee that will develop, promote, and oversee a multifaceted plan to promote staff health and wellness. The plan should be based on input solicited from school staff and should outline ways to encourage healthy eating, physical activity, and other elements of a healthy lifestyle among school staff. The staff wellness committee should distribute its plan to the school health council annually

Students in grades 9, including students with disabilities, special health-care needs, and in alternative educational settings, will receive daily physical education (or its equivalent of 150 minutes/week for elementary school students and 225 minutes/week for middle and high school students) for the entire school year. All physical education will be taught by a certified physical education teacher. Student involvement in other activities involving physical activity (e.g., interscholastic or intramural sports) will not be substituted for meeting the physical education requirement. Students will spend at least 50 percent of physical education class time participating in moderate to vigorous physical activity.

Bishop Chatard will offer a course that encourages, teaches and promotes lifetime physical activity (Lifetime Fitness) that will be available to students in grades 10-12. Bishop Chatard will also offer a weight lifting course that will teach students the proper fundamentals of lifting weights while also allowing those students to be physically active during the school day.

Bishop Chatard High School will discourage extended periods (i.e., periods of two or more hours) of inactivity. When activities, such as mandatory school-wide testing, make it necessary for students to remain indoors for long periods of time, Bishop Chatard High School should give students periodic breaks during which they are encouraged to stand and be moderately active.

Bishop Chatard High School will offer extracurricular physical activity programs, such as physical activity clubs or intramural programs. Bishop Chatard High School offers a wide variety of interscholastic sports programs. The school will offer a range of activities that meet the needs, interests, and abilities of all students, including boys, girls, students with disabilities, and students with special health-care needs.

After-school childcare and enrichment programs will provide and encourage – verbally and through the provision of space, equipment, and activities – daily periods of moderate to vigorous physical activity for all participants.

Teachers and other school and community personnel will not use physical activity (e.g., running laps, pushups) or withhold opportunities for physical activity (e.g., recess, physical education) as punishment.

The school district will assess and, if necessary and to the extent possible, make needed improvements to make it safer and easier for students to walk and bike to school. When appropriate, Bishop Chatard High will work together with local public works, public safety, and/or police departments in those efforts.

School spaces and facilities should be available to students, staff of Bishop Chatard High School. The use of these facilities for community members before, during, and after the school day, on weekends, and during school vacations are by permission only. School policies concerning safety will apply at all times/

The Principal or their designee will ensure compliance with established district-wide nutrition and physical activity wellness policies. At Bishop Chatard High School, the principal or designee will ensure compliance with those policies at Bishop Chatard High School and will report on the school’s compliance to the school’s President and Board of Directors.

School food service staff at Bishop Chatard High School will ensure compliance with nutrition policies within school food service areas and will report on this matter to the superintendent (or if done at the school level, to the school principal). In addition, the school district will report on the most recent USDA School Meals Initiative (SMI) review findings and any resulting changes. If the district has not received an SMI review from the state agency within the past five years, the district will request from the state agency that an SMI review be scheduled as soon as possible.

The Principal or their designee will develop a summary report every three years on schoolwide compliance with the school’s established nutrition and physical activity wellness policies, based on input from stakeholders within the school and outside of the school. That report will be provided to the school board and distributed to all school health councils, parent/teacher organizations, school principals, and school health services personnel in the district.

Bishop Chatard will email students a list of nutrition facts for the menu items offered through the school lunch program.
Bishop Chatard will display the menu and nutrition facts in each line of the cafeteria for students, teachers and community members to see before choosing what they eat.
Bishop Chatard will post items that promote good health and nutrition in the cafeteria.
Bishop Chatard will encourage extracurricular clubs that offer physical activity throughout the school year.

To help with the initial development of the district’s wellness policies, Bishop Chatard High School will conduct a baseline assessment of the school’s existing nutrition and physical activity environments and policies. The results of this school assessment will be compiled to identify and prioritize needs.

Assessments will be repeated every three years to help review policy compliance, assess progress, and determine areas needing improvement. As part of that review, the school district will review our nutrition and physical activity policies; provision of an environment that supports healthy eating and physical activity; and nutrition and physical education policies and program elements. Bishop Chatard High School, will, as necessary, revise the wellness policies and develop work plans to facilitate their implementation.