• CDE Guidance for the Development of California School Wellness Policies
• There are many samples of school wellness policies.  BANPAC is including a few from local lead agencies such as the California School Board Association and the National Association for Nutrition and Activity.  These may be used as references as your school district writes its own policy:
   

  1) CSBA Policy Brief 11-05 2) CSBA Policy Brief - Sample Policies 3) NANA Model Policy 4) Wellness Policy Fundamentals 5) CSBA Interim Wellness Policy

• School boards overseeing schools that participate in the child nutrition programs shall adopt Local School Wellness Policies K-12 that, at a minimum, implement and enforce nutrition and beverage standards, as defined in the California Education Code, for all foods and beverages available on school campus, and promote physical activity and increased consumption of fruits and vegetables.
• School boards shall adopt policies that require the incorporation of comprehensive, grade specific nutrition and physical activity education standards into their core curriculum for all students K-12.  
• School boards shall adopt policies that establish schools as junk food and beverage advertising-free zones.
   

  Support Materials for Developing Local School Wellness Policies Files available (usage explained below): Spanish Version of the Parent Letter  |  English Version of the Parent Letter School Wellness PowerPoint Presentation in two (2) versions: 1) html version for viewing only and 2) downloadable version (revisable) This PowerPoint presentation can be used to help school districts implement and monitor their school wellness policies. Policy In Action Training PowerPoint Presentation (html version for viewing only) TO DOWNLOAD FILE: Open the file, save to desktop, make changes - and SAVE AGAIN! Section 204 of the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act was signed into law in June 2004.  This legislation requires school districts receiving USDA funds for school meals to establish a district-wide wellness policy by the start of the 2006 school year.  The Local School Wellness Policy (LSWP) requirement underscores the important role of nutrition and physical activity in improving students’ health, API scores, and attendance. In an effort to support development of Bay Area district policies as required in the legislation, BANPAC has developed a parent letter, in Spanish (PDF) and English (PDF), and PowerPoint presentation available in two (2) versions:  1) html version for viewing only and 2) downloadable version (revisable). TO DOWNLOAD FILE: Open the file, save to desktop, make changes - and SAVE AGAIN! These may be used in the following ways:  Parent Letter – designed to inform and encourage parent and community involvement in LSWP development.  Parent volunteers are essential members in guiding the policy process and alleviating sole responsibility of the district in improving school health.  PowerPoint Presentation – created as a tool for addressing parents, superintendents, district leaders, teachers, and others as the policy development team is assembled. We hope these will be useful to you as the school year opens and they can be included in upcoming mailings to parents.  BANPAC will continue to keep you informed as new resources, trainings, and information about legislation are available.  For more information and referrals, please contact Susan Karlins, MPH, at 408.792.5121 or susan.karlins@phd.sccgov.org.

• School boards shall adopt policies that ensure the implementation of active, structured, age-appropriate, noncompetitive physical education/activity K-12 using the state required state time recommendations and appropriate facilities and equipment.

• School boards shall adopt policies that ensure that school facilities, especially in low-income neighborhoods, are available for after school programs and community use on evenings and weekends for programs that promote nutrition and physical activity.

• Responsible agencies (including cities, counties, regional transportation planning agencies and transit agencies) shall adopt policies that fully consider the needs of pedestrians, bicyclists, and the disabled in the planning, design, construction, reconstruction or rehabilitation of highways or mass transit projects to improve the availability of public transportation in low-income communities to increase access to healthy food and physical activity opportunities.

• Develop and adopt model city and county planning and zoning policies that encourage or require increased access to healthy foods (especially fresh fruits and vegetables) through usual, non-emergency retail channels, in low-income communities (particularly communities of color). Channels include retail stores, farmers' markets, restaurants, and other retail food outlets.

• Develop and adopt model city, county, and state policies that

  Encourage or require local social-service agencies to increase access, enrollment, and participation in the USDA Food Stamp, WIC, and Child Nutrition programs; and to facilitate ease of use among active and eligible beneficiaries of these programs. Specifically, this includes establishing customer service standards, streamlining how schools provide eligibility information on qualifying students to be reimbursed, and ensuring that all eligible children are automatically enrolled in Child Nutrition Programs without requiring parents to complete paperwork. Such policies must also address the easy, universal use of EBT at farmers' markets and other remote sites.

January Policy Education Updates from the Food Research and Action Center

Economic Recovery Plan Moving in House and Senate Immediate Actions Needed: As debate heats up today in the House on the American Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act, H.R. 1, it is critical to take two steps today: 1) Call your U.S. House member to urge him/her to vote for final passage of the legislation. Call toll-free at 866.544.7573.  The toll-free number is provided courtesy of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).  A House vote is expected as early as Wednesday, January 28.  Please urge both Democrats and Republicans to support this bill, which contains very important help for low-and moderate- income people though nutrition and other programs.  2) Join FRAC and other allies by signing onto an organizational letter that urges Congress to further help low-income families with children by including in the Recovery Act important improvements in the Child Tax Credit.  The House bill would mean increased income from the credit for 13.3 million children.  A recent study (from Canada) shows, as might be expected, that a larger refundable credit has the effect of reducing hunger.  Click here to view the letter and sign your organization onto it. House Package Nutrition Provisions: H.R. 1 would, among other things, boost the SNAP/Food Stamp maximum allotment by 13.6 percent for FY 2009, provide $300 million over two years in extra SNAP/Food Stamp administrative funds to states; provide $726 million to boost afterschool snack reimbursement and to expand the afterschool supper program nationwide; provide $100 million more in funding for WIC management information systems that could support Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) capacity; add $200 million in grants for senior nutrition programs; and provide $150 million for The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP).  Funding for WIC caseload increases was not included in the House package, but reportedly is addressed in the Senate version of the bill.  See House bill and report language (latest version).  Senate bill and report language is not public yet, but for highlights, click here. There is thus very substantial nutrition program improvement in the stimulus packages, including $20 billion for food stamps in the House bill.  (Some scattered reports to the contrary, such as a Washington Post story that said "There is no significant increase in food stamp funding on the horizon," are simply wrong.) Additional Anti-Poverty Provisions of House Package: Additional anti-poverty provisions in the package include: an important improvement in the refundable part of the Child Tax Credit; Earned Income Tax expansion; assistance to states for Medicaid costs; a boost in SSI payments; major unemployment insurance improvements; and added funds for senior nutrition, emergency food and shelter, TANF, child care and Head Start, LIHEAP, child support enforcement, and the Community Services Block Grant. Background on the Child Tax Credit: The House economic recovery bill contains an important expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC) to very low-income families.  Currently, the refundable CTC does not begin to phase in until a family has earning of $8,500.  Poor families hard-hit by this economic crisis with earnings below that amount are excluded from receiving any type of the CTC, and those with earnings just above $8,500 get only small amounts.  The House provision makes families eligible for the CTC with the first dollar of earnings, allowing more low-income families to qualify, and increasing the amount received by low-income families with earnings over $8,500.  The House proposal would help more than 13 million children-either by making them eligible for the first time or by increasing the credit, and helping them will reduce hunger and other deprivation, produce jobs and boost the economy.  The Senate Appropriations Committee is marking up its version of the bill today with a narrower CTC proposal that brings the CTC earnings threshold down to only $6,000. State-by-State Impacts: For estimates of the state-by-state impact of select provisions of the House economic recovery package, including the food stamp provision, check the Website of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities here. For more information, contact Ellen Teller; eteller@frac.org,  or Ellen Vollinger;  evollinger@frac.org at FRAC.