Community Collaboration for Improved School Nutrition Environment in
Saluda County

, South Carolina

Through collaboration with the Saluda School District, local businesses, a grass roots coalition, and local volunteers, the following policy and environmental changes were achieved: 1) interactive school garden program at the Saluda Primary School, 2) healthy snacks canteen initiative at the Saluda High School, and 3) new salad bar and sandwich line programs available at Saluda schools. The school garden program and salad bar/sandwich programs began in 2002 and are currently being maintained by the cafeteria staff supported by Prevention NET, local garden club, and others. Punch Out Junk Food began in 2003 and is currently maintained by the school principal, health occupations students, Piggly Wiggly grocery store, South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SC DHEC) Health Educator, and others.

The intended outcomes of these changes were 1) success in increased availability and consumption of fruits and vegetables among school age children through partnering efforts with local businesses, 2) success in increased availability of interactive opportunities for school age children to apply classroom knowledge to garden based programs, and 3) success in adoption of new school health policies to implement nutrition programs designed to promote alternative meal options such as the salad bar and sandwich line programs offered at the primary, middle and high school levels.

Policy/Environmental Change Initiation

The Healthy Schools Task Force at the Saluda Primary School identified a need to use a school garden as an active learning project. The Task Force secured a mini-grant and successfully implemented a school garden in early 2003. During the same year, a supplemental salad bar program was implemented by the School District Food Services Director to promote the use of fruits and vegetables from the garden in the cafeteria and to serve as an incentive for students to grow organic foods. Both programs are currently sustained by the cafeteria staff, local garden club, community members from Prevention NET (a healthy communities coalition), the Communities in Schools program, and teachers from all grade levels to promote student-garden interaction. Once every month, students acquire knowledge about the gardening process of planting fruit and vegetable seeds, and develop an awareness of the link between gardening and the promotion of healthy eating habits.

At the Saluda Middle School, the partnership between Prevention NET and the cafeteria staff began with the utilization of the School Health Index (SHI) tool to collect baseline data on student nutritional needs, areas in need of further improvement, and areas of progress made in the school cafeteria environment. At the Saluda High School, the SHI tool was also used in conjunction with a pre-test nutrition survey. The School Food Services Director presented the data on nutritional needs of students to school officials and recommended starting the salad and sandwich bar programs to provide alternative meal options to the students.

At the Saluda High School, the SHI tool was also used, in addition to a national school vending machine survey and informal focus groups, to collect baseline data on the nutritional value of current snack items offered through the canteen and vending programs, and level of student interest for healthier choices. As a result, the high school principal and the Piggly Wiggly grocery store manager were empowered to provide a variety of healthy snacks and beverages through the high school canteen program based on established guidelines (figure 1) and survey results. The goal is for at least 50% of canteen offerings to meet the healthy food and beverage guidelines. The initiative, Punch Out Junk Food, has been at Saluda High School since October 2003. The health occupations students currently serve as the steering committee for promoting the sales of healthy snacks under the direction of the health occupations teacher and principal.

Public Health Agency Roles

The health department provided technical assistance and support in the planning, design, implementation, and evaluation processes of the school-based efforts. For example, the Healthy Schools Task Force consulted with the health department during the application process of a 1-year mini-grant for the school garden project. The health department also played a role in maintaining partnerships to assure support for the garden program through the recruitment of parental and lay volunteers from the local garden club and other community-based organizations. For the healthy snacks initiative, the health department played a significant role in establishing a partnership between a local business and the school district to provide healthy snacks to the high school students. The health department continues to play a critical role in building local capacity to partner and support policy and environmental change affecting adoption of healthy behaviors.

Major Partners

In addition to the support mentioned above, partners included the SCDHEC/Saluda County Health Department, Saluda School District, Prevention NET, Saluda County Healthy Schools Task Force, Saluda County Communities In Schools (CIS) Program, Piggly Wiggly grocery store, Saluda County Garden Club, and various community volunteers.

Official Support

Partnerships with public officials were not sought with the exception of school district officials and administrators.

Results from the Policy/Environmental Change

The school garden program is currently sustained by children in the CIS program. Community

volunteers also continue to provide their assistance to help the children plant various fruit and vegetable seeds. In addition, the organic foods are regularly donated to the salad bar for sustainability of healthy menu choices. During the first week of salad bar implementation at the Saluda High School in 2003, the cafeteria staff recorded over 700 meal purchases from the salad bar alone according to the cafeteria database system. The cafeteria staff continues to record consistent numbers of salad bar visits to confirm the long-term impact and benefits of the salad bar policy. For Punch Out Junk Food, during the first week of implementation in 2003, the number of healthy snack sales exceeded the number of unhealthy snack sales resulting in a greater demand for healthier canteen options.

Lessons Learned

The essential first step was to establish buy-in and collaboration with school officials prior to involving outside partners. Resources needed for implementation could then be mobilized from local partners.

Lessons have also been learned about the importance of securing collaborative support among diverse partners to support policy and environmental change efforts. The local school system had initial reservations about adopting new food policies, but through support by the health department, Prevention NET, the healthy schools task force, and other community members involved, the food service director and other school personnel succeeded in implementing the salad bar, school garden, and healthy snacks projects.

Another lesson learned is the importance of student involvement in the implementation and decision making processes. For example, the health occupations students became a steering committee at the Saluda High School for the Punch Out Junk Food initiative and coordinate the advertising and marketing of healthy snacks in the school canteen. For the school garden curricula, the CIS coordinator is actively involving students to plant fruit and vegetable seeds under the direction of local volunteers from the garden club and others.

In conclusion,

to increase community empowerment and ownership of such policy and environmental change efforts, the health department needs to build capacity of local partners to serve as change agents. It becomes vital to interconnect all available resources such as retirees and other community members as the main driving force for tangible school-based efforts. This outcome suggests the need to develop and maintain active relationships with potential partners who can allocate resources to improve the nutritional intake and overall dietary practices of school age children.

Opposition

School administration at the highest level was initially reluctant to approve new nutrition policies due to concerns regarding loss of revenue and diversion of resources away from improving standardized test scores. With support from our community partners and local school administration we were able to obtain approval to move ahead with implementation of projects. Though the Healthy Snacks project proved successful and is revenue neutral, we continue to experience challenges in introducing new school nutrition initiatives.

Submitted By

David S. Bang

, MPH, CHES, Ph.D. Candidate

Health Educator II

South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control/Region I

1736 South Main Street

Greenwood, South Carolina, 29646

(864) 227-5910

(864) 942-3680 FAX

bangds@dhec.sc.gov

Contact:

Director of Health Education

South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control/Region I

(864) 942-3600