District seeks input on nutrition policy

As I sat in a recent meeting of the high levels of wellness committee, talk of revitalizing the after-school gardening program at El Morro made my mind wander to the ideas of gardens in general. In particular, I recalled from my own school days the message from Voltaire’s “Candide”: “Cultivate your garden.”

I remember this as sage advice to seek solutions, nourishment, personal satisfaction and success not through searching to the far ends of the earth but through focusing on your own garden -- discovering the natural riches to be harvested from your own backyard.

As we move into this 2005-06 school year, parents, teachers administrators, students and community members will be offered the opportunity to “cultivate their gardens” in a new and important way. The health and wellness committee is currently in the process of formulating a state-mandated student wellness policy which will encompass standards including nutrition education goals, physical activity goals, methods to promote wellness through other school-based activities and nutrition guidelines for all foods on campus.

Faced with this new mandate from the state to have a student wellness policy in place by July, Debra Appel, director of food services for the Laguna Beach School District, has the support and dedication of the high levels of wellness committee to aid her in this task.

The new student wellness policy may have sweeping affects. For example, it will specify the maximum grams of fat and sugar permitted in food served on campus, as well as potentially ban the distribution of candy of any kind by teachers to students. It could have far-reaching affects such as limiting PTA bake sales and making classroom cupcakes on a child’s birthday a thing of the past.

That is why, in this process of constructing the new policy, the health and wellness committee seeks the input of students, parents, teachers and administrators alike; it is all of us who will have to implement and live by the new policy, and so it should be all of us who help to create it.

While the benefits of a well-crafted health and wellness policy are obvious, adapting to it may not be easy for students who will have new food choices at school, teachers who will have to discover different avenues of reward, and administrators who must oversee the policy.

As the committee works to find the proper balance within the new standards, it seeks to raise awareness and build consensus by taking input from the school community. The goal is a policy not handed down to all of us by the district, but rather a policy that reflects the opinions and values of all of the stakeholders in the process. The committee also solicits the help of volunteers and experts in our community who have backgrounds in nutrition, food service, grocery distribution, gardening, menu planning and more.

Change can be hard, but the benefits can be invaluable. Together, if we find new ways to cultivate our garden, we can make a difference.

For further information, or to view a working draft of the policy, please contact me at melissacavanaugh@cox.net or Debra Appel, director of food services, at 497-7700, ext. 216.

The next health and wellness committee meeting is from 3:15 to 4:15 p.m. Tuesday at Laguna Beach High School, Room 71.

QUESTION

Should Laguna’s schools ban sweets from classrooms? Write us at P.O. Box 248, Laguna Beach, CA, 92652, e-mail us at coastlinepilot@latimes.com or fax us at 494-8979. Please give your name and tell us your home address and phone number for verification purposes only.