Hilton CSD Wellness Committee seeks to increase better nutrition and fitness in schools

The Hilton School District is committed to wellness of its students and staff members.  The District is committed to providing a school environment that promotes and protects children's health, well-being, and the ability to learn by fostering healthy eating and physical activity. The District has established a Wellness Committee to develop the District's proposed local wellness policy, making such policy recommendations for review and adoption by the Board of Education. The District's wellness committee includes, but is not limited to, representatives from each of the following groups: a) Parents; b) Students; c) The District's food service program; d) The School Board; e) School administrators; and f) Members of the public. The District Wellness Committee will assess current activities, programs and policies available in the District; identify specific areas of need within the District; develop the policy; and provide mechanisms for implementation, evaluation, revision and updating of the policy. The Wellness Committee is established to represent the local community’s perspective in developing the Wellness Policy for the District.  

Hilton CSD Food Service - Find out more about nutrition and school meals

Community Education - Hilton CSD employees use free/discounted GAP rate for fitness/wellness classes

Employee Assistance Program EAP - employees source for personal assistance

Following the passage of federal legislation [PL 108.265 Sect. 204] in 2005, the Hilton School District established a Board of Education-level Wellness Committee composed of staff members from food service, physical education, Family and Consumer Science, health, district communications, community education and regular education in order to recommend goals, actions and policy for nutrition education, physical activity, and other school-based activities “in an effort to promote student wellness which includes nutrition guidelines selected by the local educational agency for all foods available on each school campus . . . during the school day with the objectives of promoting health and reducing childhood obesity.”   For more from the US Dept. of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service.

The Committee wrote the wellness policy for the district and presented goals and recommendations for achieving optimum health to the Board of Education.  In addition, the Committee discussed several actions: activity breaks or energizers in the classroom; the role of daily recess that is not used as either reward or punishment; the importance of non-traditional, lifetime sports and how to incorporate them into the P.E. program; employee wellness options; intramurals at all buildings before and after school; support for recreation and community education activities; making curricular connections between P.E., Family & Consumer Science and Health; and using the new USDA Dietary Guidelines -- USDA New Food Pyramid -- to increase lunch selections that meet criteria for better health.    

The Committee is working to comply with the Department of Health’s responsibilities under the Childhood Obesity Prevention Program to encourage collaboration between nutrition and physical education professionals by utilizing age-appropriate measurements of body mass index (BMI) to develop a comprehensive approach to improve health and nutrition for school age children; ensure that more students receive a daily breakfast by requiring districts that participate in the National School Lunch Program to establish a school breakfast program for middle and high schools; require the annual development of local school wellness policies to address health and nutrition in schools and to consider expanding breakfast, lunch and recess to ensure that sufficient time is provided to eat nutritious meals and participate in physical activity.  Additional aspects of the Wellness Committee involve encouraging employee wellness. 

For further information: 585-392-1000 ext. 2152.