The Shawano School District is in the process of updating its wellness policy, with the help of ThedaCare.
The School Board had its first reading of the policy Monday, and formal approval is expected to come at the board’s Dec. 4 meeting. ThedaCare health coach Carey Grieves noted that school districts are required by the federal government to have a wellness policy for seven years.
“Over the last two decades, the obesity rates for kids have tripled,” Grieves said. “The students here in the district, 31 percent of them are overweight in (grades) K-2, which is right at where Wisconsin says K-12 is at.”
The proposed policy will include the creation of a wellness committee that will regularly look at school practices and make sure any food and exercise programs will work for the district.
There are also provisions to require the district to provide ample time for students to eat meals, as well as to make sure students have adequate time for exercise, whether in structured physical education, recess time or extracurricular activities.
School districts are helping address several concerns, according to Grieves.
Diabetes for the current young generation is becoming an epidemic, she said, the way HIV/AIDS was for her generation in the 1980s and 1990s.
It is possible that, if America continues on its current health track, half of all children could end up with some form of diabetes, she said.
“We burn about 150 calories from an hour of sports, but we usually give our kids 300 to 500,” Grieves said. “Whether we’re eating too much food or not getting enough exercise, we can fix it.”
Soda consumption has plateaued in the U.S. over the last two years, she said, but sports drink and fruit juice consumption is on the rise.
Children in grades K-5 are only supposed to get about three teaspoons of sugar per day, according to Grieves, but half-pints of chocolate milk at breakfast, lunch and snack time contain five teaspoons total. One can of soda contains 10 teaspoons of sugar, she said.
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