3 R.I. school districts honored for wellness efforts

THE 2007 Rhode Island Healthy Schools Coalition Award of Honor went to Narragansett public school district, for its efforts over the past five years. /
THE 2007 Rhode Island Healthy Schools Coalition Award of Honor went to Narragansett public school district, for its efforts over the past five years. /

WARWICK – Three school districts were honored yesterday at the Rhode Island Healthy Schools Coalition’s fifth annual breakfast for local education leaders, held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Warwick. Attendance was “well over 300,” coalition spokeswoman Linda Beaulieu told the Providence Business News today. “This is the fifth year, and every year it gets bigger and bigger.”
The awards breakfast was open to school superintendents, school committee members, principals, food-service directors, school physicians, school business managers and the leaders of parent-teacher organizations.
Narragansett school officials took home the 2007 Rhode Island Healthy Schools Coalition Award of Honor, for having the most consistent and persistent district-wide wellness effort over the past five years.
The school district adopted a comprehensive wellness policy in 2006, under the leadership of the Health and Safety Committee, which has been functioning as a subcommittee of the Narragansett School Committee since 2004. The district’s wellness policy is ongoing, supported at all levels and continuously being improved, coalition Chair Dorothy Brayley said in a statement.
The Healthy Schools Coalition made particular mention of Narragansett’s ongoing wellness education for members of the local school community, at both Kent Hospital and the local YMCA, and the “especially outstanding” support of district business official Ron DiFabio.
Schools in Central Falls and South Kingstown also were honored, receiving the New England Dairy and Food Council’s 2007 Expanding Breakfast Awards.
“Expanding breakfast” includes taking food service beyond the cafeteria to the bus, the hallway or the classroom, the council said. This increases breakfast participation, helps erase the low-income stigma and helps ensure that students are well-nourished and ready to learn.
First place and $5,000 went to Central Falls High School for its “AMP-up” grab-and-go breakfasts. The AMP-up program – providing healthful but “teen-friendly” foods – has doubled breakfast participation at the school. Dennis Gomez, from the Central Falls School Food Service Program, accepted the award.
Second place and $2,000 went to Broad Rock Middle School in South Kingstown, for another program targeting students who would rather sleep in. Broad Rock’s grab-and-go breakfast features easy-to-eat, nutrient-rich items such as fresh fruit and low-fat milk. Karen Orabona, of the South Kingstown School Food Service Program, accepted the award.
More than 25 schools across New England had applied for the council’s Expanding Breakfast Awards. Fourteen were honored; besides the Rhode Island schools, winners included three schools each in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont.
The awards breakfast also marked the Healthy Schools Coalition’s progress towards its five-year goals, Healthy Schools Coordinator Karin Wetherill told the PBN in a telephone interview.
The state coalition was founded about half a decade ago to address the problem of childhood obesity, Weatherill said. It has a dual focus on nutrition and physical activity.
The Providence-based Rhode Island Healthy Schools Coalition – whose 141 members represent more than 95 organizations, including local school districts and nonprofits – is a chapter of Action for Healthy Kids, a nonprofit environmental health organization with chapters in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. To learn more, visit ActionForHealthyKids.org.

Additional information about the nationwide “healthy schools” movement is available from the Washington, D.C.-based Healthy Schools Network Inc. at www.healthyschools.org.

To learn more about the New England Dairy and Food Council’s Expanding Breakfast Awards and other school wellness programs, visit www.newenglanddairycouncil.org.

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