School Wellness Projects
On June 30, 2004, the President signed the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 into law. This new law requires every school district to develop and implement a local wellness policy by the beginning of the School Year 2006-2007.
The law requires that, at a minimum, wellness policies:
- Include goals for nutrition education, physical activity, and other school-based activities designed to promote student wellness in a manner that the local educational agency determines appropriate;
- Include nutrition guidelines for all foods available on the school campus during the school day;
- Assure that the guidelines for school meals are not less restrictive than Federal standards;
- Establish a plan for measuring implementation of the local wellness policy;
- Involve parents, students, representatives of the school authority; the school board, school administrators, and the public in development of these policies.
Cape Cod Cooperative Extension offers a variety of programs to help support schools in implementing and supporting their wellness policies. Please review the projects in this section for further details.