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Local Parents Take Charge Of Wellness At Schools

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By AMY ELLINOR, Tribune Correspondent

Published: February 22, 2008

Recently, I was thumbing through one of those free magazines that advertise businesses and schools in the area. A point of pride for one private school was that it offered physical education class every day.

I couldn't help but cringe a little. Ten to 15 years ago, P.E. was hardly considered a luxury.

Although the childhood obesity crisis has gotten a lot of attention in the past year or two, not much has changed. Thirty-five percent of American children ages 16 to 19 are overweight.

Our schools have made some progress, such as working to take soda machines out of cafeterias and getting away from using food as a reward. But with overcrowding and tight budgets, it's hard to bring back playground time and P.E.

Rather than accepting the status quo, some parents are taking matters into their own hands. School wellness committees are cropping up across the country, and there are a few in Tampa.

This is the first year the Parent Teacher Association at Roosevelt Elementary School in Tampa has had a wellness committee. So far, it has been well received by students and parents.

Mindy Taylor, a parent at Roosevelt who volunteers as the head of the wellness committee, says the group's aim is to get kids to be more active and more aware of what they're putting into their bodies.

One thing that has been a big hit is Try it Tuesday, when kids can sample a featured fruit or vegetable of the day. To get the kids interested, the committee started the year with more common items, such as organic apples, cucumbers and tangerines.

Another recent success was achieving school-wide participation in International Walk to School Day, a program that promotes exercise, family time and making the streets safer for children. Families that never walked to school before found they enjoyed it, and they are still walking to school.

Taylor cautions parents interested in starting their own wellness committee that it involves a lot of work and planning. Taylor met with Roosevelt's principal, Colleen Faucett, over the summer to discuss what the school committee would look like. Part of Faucett's job was to find a way to meet wellness guidelines handed down from the county.

Groups should be prepared to work with a small stipend. Taylor says it wasn't in the Roosevelt budget to buy a school health publication, so the parents publish their own. Taylor uses her background in nursing to select appropriate articles, and a child psychologist who has a student at Roosevelt contributes a column on emotional health.

The newsletter also features a recipe of the month that is healthy and easy for a young child to make.

Committee members got creative for the Try It Tuesday table, which involves acquiring and preparing a sampling of fruits and vegetables for 500-plus kids. They approached local businesses for help and have received food donations from Whaley's Market and the Village Health Market.

Other items on the agenda that don't involve much overhead include participating in Jump Rope for Heart, which is a fundraiser for The American Heart Association, putting together a cookbook of healthy recipes submitted by the children and possibly having an on-site Weight Watchers group.

Even with all of the work involved, Taylor says the parents are more motivated and passionate with each new success. One of her favorite moments since she started this year came when a parent from another school called her to get advice about starting a wellness committee. Taylor says she hopes every school eventually has one.

"It just makes sense," she says. "If you are living a healthy lifestyle, you are going to get more out of school."

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