Parents

Parents can make a huge impact in their families, their communities and their schools when they're armed with solid facts about the benefits of healthy lifestyles.

Support the School Meals Programs

  • Encourage your child to eat breakfast and lunch.
    • Eat breakfast or lunch at school with your child. You will have a great time with your child, and you'll be sending the message that everybody needs healthy meals to be their best.
  • Get to know the school foodservice staff and find out how you can support their work and your school.
    • Help identify ways to raise money for the school that don't involve selling food. And don't forget to squeeze in physical activity, if possible.
      • Plant sale
      • School-event planners
      • Walk-a-thon
      • Talent show
      • Treasure/scavenger hunt
      • Car wash

Healthy Eating Promotion (adapted from the Parent Teacher Association at www.pta.org).

  1. Help make school dining facilities appealing to students.
    • Take a look at your cafeteria. Is it a nice place to eat?
    • Ask your kids what they think of the room.
    • Is it dark or sunny?
    • Are the seats comfortable?
    • If the walls are drab, ask your school’s art teachers to have students create artwork (featuring healthy foods) for the walls. Or ask your principal for permission to have a painting party, and paint murals on the walls.
  2. Suggest selling bottled water at the school store, front desk, and all school events.
  3. Eat with the kids. Go in one day and join your kids at lunch.
    • Ask your school for permission first.
    • Pack a healthy lunch or eat what the kids eat.
    • Find out what choices are available at your school, and what they taste like.
    • What do kids pick from the menus, how long do they have to wait in line, and how much time do they have to eat?
  4. Make sure your school participates in the School Breakfast, National School Lunch, and Afterschool Snack programs.
    • If your school does not participate in these programs, encourage school leaders to do so.
  5. Meet with the food service staff at your school and learn about their daily challenges in preparing meals and their suggestions for healthy improvements. Write their ideas down.
  6. Talk to students about the food at school. They will definitely have opinions about the time they eat lunch, whether they are rushed, what the food is like, and what they would like to see changed.
    • It's important to get students' support for healthy changes in the school environment.
  7. Share the information you have gathered. Speak up about what changes are needed. Enlist the help and support of your principal, the school food service staff, and teachers for making improvements in your school's "nutrition environment." With the strength of other parents behind you, you can make a big difference and change your school for the better!
  8. Participate in school governance by serving on the school or district site-based decision-making committee, the PTA or PTO, or other advisory committees.