By

cheryl thienpont,   Collins Garden El

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Access to Healthy Foods

During lunchtime the classes count the number of unhealthy snacks being consumed in their class and the class in each grade level that has the lowest number gets to take the stuffed animal for the day. We also watch to see which class consumed the most milk during their lunchtime and award them the stuffed cow for the day and mark the poster to keep track. When the class gets 50 marks on the poster, they will earn a string cheese snack, and after getting 100 marks they will have a frozen yogurt party.

How did you accomplish your goals?

We accomplished our goals of lowering the number of unhealthy snacks being consumed by awarding an incentive that the class wanted to win. The students encouraged each other to choose healthier snacks so their class would win the stuffed animal.

How do you plan to make this Play last during the school year and beyond?

We plan on continuing this challenge by being consistant on our observations and distribution of the stuffed animals

What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

Some of the adult lunch monitors do not participate and it makes it hard to change unhealthy habits. We also had parents complain that their child doesn't like healthy foods and at least he is eating something. And the third problem was the class would not bring the stuffed animal/poster back the next day. We just tried encouraging the adults and telling them the benefits of this activity and we would send students back to class to retrieve the awards they left in their class.