Welcome to the Beye Wellness Nutrition Team’s website!
Programs
The Nutrition Team runs a variety of programs at Beye. Check out all our web pages about: the School Garden, the Tastings, Nutrition Awareness Program, National Nutrition Month, and Parties & Celebrations.
Resources
For a great statement of why we care about feeding our children nutritiously, see this newsletter from the organization LocalHarvest.
LocalHarvest also has a great summary of basic changes you can make to create a healthier diet for you and your family.
Check out this video by 11-year old Birke Baehr, who argues that if you know the true costs of our industrial food production, you’d head to local farmers and organic foods!
More great resources coming soon!
Nutrition in the News
Michelle Obama recently urged restaurants to serve healthier foods, especially to kids. Read the article here.
Why Do D97 Schools Have Wellness Committees?
In 2004, the federal Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act required schools that participate in the National School Lunch Program to develop wellness policies by the start of the 2006-2007 school year. District 97 convened a group of administrators, staff, parents, and community members to write a district wellness policy. In August 2006, the D97 school board approved the policy. Administrative guidelines were newly approved by our new superintendent (Dr. Al Roberts) in August 2010 and building principals are charged with enforcing them.
Check out this brief , 3 minute You Tube video explaining why D97 has a wellness policy,
Although the federal legislation only requires that wellness policies address nutrition and fitness issues, at Beye, our Wellness Committees also include a Green Team.
Why did Federal Legislation Require Wellness Policies?
Nationally, great concern has arisen over the obesity epidemic as data have increasingly shown that both adults and children are more likely every year to be overweight or obese. The health consequences are alarming. Children who are overweight are much likely to be obese by young adulthood, and to have developed a host of “adult onset” diseases that may greatly shorten their lives.
Click here to view the interactive maps of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that display trends in adult obesity over time (you will have to scroll down a bit). Your jaw will drop.
For a 2010 map of childhood obesity from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, click here. In Illinois, over 20% of children (1 in 5) are currently obese. We have the 4th highest rate of childhood obesity in the nation.
From the New York Times (9/23/2010): “The draft version of the federal government’s 2010 Dietary Guidelines, which will be formally released in December, identifies obesity as the nation’s greatest public-health threat.”