Healthy students are better learners, and education leads to longer, healthier lives. Because kids spend more than half of their day at school, the school environment is critical to promoting healthy eating and physical activity. Both of these factors impact attention in the classroom, test scores, attendance rates, and long term wellbeing.

The local school wellness policy or local school wellness council is a great place to start. One example of an easy, but effective, policy change is to implement “healthy celebrations” - where birthdays, holidays and other events are celebrated with non-food items, such as extra play-time.

See below for additional resources to help update your local school wellness policy:

• Comprehensive guide to help districts facilitate a wellness committee
• Strategies for parents and teachers to promote nutrition education/messages to students at home or school
• Six step process to keep moving forward and sustain a healthy school
• Making the case for school wellness and getting others to join your efforts to make school wellness a priority