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Nicole Nieto
PPE 310: Health Literacy for Schools
Dr. Hesse
10/27/2015

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Introduction
America has
an obesity epidemic

been in
for over a

decade. Young children have become

obese or overweight and are not fulfilling their daily intake of healthy and nutritious foods with
the recommended daily servings of vegetables, fruits, grains, dairy, and protein. Its not just at
home where they can encounter lack of these nutritional elements, but at school as well. Some
low-income schools provide the students with free breakfast, lunch and snack, that are severely
lacking in nutritional value. The ChooseMyPlate.gov created a site in which children, families,
and teachers can see the nutritional guidelines that the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and
Promotion has set up to facilitate in guiding them to maker smart, healthy choices. The
SuperTracker is part of this site that allows for individually tracking of all the food items
consumed in a day and cross-referenced with a daily food group target to see if the individual is

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in range for meeting those goals.

National Standards for School Meals
This program states that schools who serve children meals must be in alignment with the
Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Schools are required by this program to offer fruits and
vegetables as two separate meal components. Fruit should be offered at breakfast and lunch
daily. Specific vegetable subgroups should be offered weekly such as those that are dark green
and orange, as well as legumes with a limited quantity of starchy vegetables. Whole grains and a
daily meat or meat alternate with breakfast, fat-free milk that is unflavored and flavored as well
as low-fat unflavored milk should be offered. State agencies should also be required to conduct a
nutritional review of school lunches and breakfast. The simplified menu planning that includes
these elements should be serving as a teaching tool to help children realize what makes up a
balanced meal and to make smart decisions (2012).
Foothills Head Start Preschool does not meet the requirements for the National Standards
for School Meals. Students do not get choices in any part of their meals. For breakfast, they can
choose between 1% milk or 1% fat free milk. Thats the only choice that is given to them. There
is not any fruit or vegetable variety to choose from either. The fruit for breakfast is usually
packaged cup of fruit. For lunch, students will either have corn, carrots, green beans, or broccoli
that is given to them depending on the menu of the week. If students dont like the meal given,
there is not an alternate choice to any component. They receive a small amount of salad with
ranch each meal during lunch. There is rarely a whole grain given to the students (2015).
Foothills Head Start Preschool is on a free-reduced policy.
The requirements for the Local School Wellness Policy include goals for nutrition
promotion and education, physical activity, and other activities that promote student wellness.

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Nutrition guidelines for all foods should be available on each school campus during the school
day consistent with USDAs meal pattern requirements and nutrition standards for foods and
designed to promote student wellness (2014). Foothills Head Start does not have these goals for
nutrition in place, nor do they have the guidelines posted for each meal (2015).
Dietary Guidelines for Americans
The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans ensure the public receives the proper
nutritional components and portions for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Its intended to be used
to develop educational materials to carry out nutrition-related programs. Nutrition educators and
health professionals also contribute to provide nutrition messages. The goal of these guidelines is
to promote healthy eating and physical activity choices to improve the health of all Americans
within the calories needed. Recommendations are provided for those with particular food
preferences, cultural traditions and customs of diverse groups. These guidelines apply to
Americans as young as 2 years and older. There are 3 main goals that these guidelines
emphasize. The first is to maintain calorie balance over time to achieve and sustain a healthy
weight. Many Americans need to increase the calories they expend and decrease the amount of
calories they consume. The second goal is to focus on consuming nutrient-dense foods and
beverages. Americans are currently consuming too much sodium and too many calories from
sugars and solid fats. Nutrient dense foods include vegetables, whole grains, fruits, seafood, lean
meats, poultry, eggs, beans, nuts and seed. Nutrient dense beverages include fat-free or low-fat
milk. The third goal is to consume fewer foods with sodium saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol,
sugars, and refined grains (2010).
A child at Foothills Head Start Preschool would not meet the Dietary Guidelines for
Americans. For breakfast and lunch, they would have only eaten oz. when the target grain goal

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is 6 oz. The child is under the guidelines of having eaten cups of vegetables for lunch when
they should be eating 2 cups to hit the target vegetable goal. They did meet the dietary
guideline of having 2 cups of fruit for breakfast and lunch. They did almost meet the goal of
attaining 3 cups of dairy by receiving 2 cups of dairy. However, they were severely under for
their goal of receiving 5 oz. of protein when they only received oz. of protein with breakfast
and lunch combined.
Nutritional Improvements
In order for the students of Foothills Head Start Preschool to be in compliance with the
Dietary Guidelines and the National Standards for School Meals, some things need to be altered
and added to make sure they are receiving the best nutritional guidance possible. For one thing,
there needs to be an increase in the amount of vegetables, protein, and grains that the children
receive for breakfast and lunch. Children should be eating at least 2 more cups of vegetables, 5
oz. more of grains, and 4 oz. more of protein.
Another change that should be made would for the children to be allowed choices in their
menu. Many of the children refuse to eat the food because they do not like it. There should be a
choice of each element of a healthy meal. The children can be offered three different types of
fresh vegetables, fruit, grains, dairy, and protein. This will allow the child the ability to make
healthy choices on their own, as well as them still being able to get the required nutritional value.
Lastly, the fruits and vegetables should be presented fresh and raw. Many of the fruit
items the children receive are in fruit cups in saturated sugar syrup and the vegetables are
packaged as well. This does not fall into compliance with the reduction of excess sugar and
sodium that the Dietary Guidelines suggest. Its important to eliminate the implementation of

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unnecessary calories and sugar so that the students receive the proper nutrients they need from
fruits and vegetables.
Reflection
I am honestly appalled at the meals that these children are consuming on a daily basis. It
seems as though they are never getting the proper nutrients that are required for them to live a
healthy lifestyle. The students are presented with high calorie, high sugar, high sodium foods and
the children sometimes dont even like the food so they wont eat. As part of learning the
nutritional elements that are needed, students need to make healthy choices as well. There is no
opportunity for children to experience choosing what they would like to eat and there is no
nutritional education presented to these kids. Although the school is on a free-reduced policy,
there is no excuse for the lack of nutritional content in the meals.
We have a few students who are currently severely overweight, and these meals are just
adding into their weight gain. They are unable to run around outside for long do to the poor
nutrition they receive. Its not just the overweight children; its all of the students. They have a
hard time focusing in the classroom, are constantly tired, and dont have the energy or ability to
do physical exercise. I know its due to the food that they are eating at school. The snacks
provided to the students are also really high sugar with little to no nutritional value. Pop tarts or
sugared cereal are a common occurrence for these students.
Looking at the data that was entered in about the students lunch and breakfast nutrition
demonstrated to me that as teachers, we really need to be advocates for our students. Its not just
about teaching them academics, but nutrition as well and the importance of living a healthy life.
Its proven that when students eat well and exercise often, they do better in school. That is
something that young children need to know. When children learn about the importance of

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nutrition and how to eat healthy, it will stay with them and continue on throughout their life. For
students and families who dont know the first thing about maintaining a healthy life, they can
turn to the SuperTracker to see how much their eating and where they went wrong and they can
use the ChooseMyPlate for healthy alternatives.

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8
References

Dietary Guidelines for Americans. (2010, January). Retrieved October 27,

2015, from
http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2010.asp#overview
MyPlate. (n.d.). About Us. Retrieved October 27, 2015, from
http://www.choosemyplate.gov/about.html
Nutrition Standards in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast
Programs. (2012).
Federal Registrar, 77(17), 4088-4089. Retrieved October 20, 2014,
from
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-01-26/pdf/2012-1010.pdf
October 2015 Foothills Head Start Breakfast and Lunch Menu. (2015,
October)