Healthier School Foods and Beverages

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Healthy Schools: Healthy Students

Fifty-four million students attend nearly 123,000 elementary, middle and high schools nationwide, making schools a natural place to promote and reinforce healthy habits in today's youth.

Research suggests that a healthier school environment can result in greater academic achievement and healthier lives for students and school staff. Healthy students perform better, attend school more and behave better in class. 

By following the Alliance School Beverage and Competitive Foods Guidelines, schools can select nutrient-rich foods, fat-free and low-fat dairy products and place limits on calories, fat, saturated fat, trans fat, sugar and sodium.

Alliance School Beverage and Competitive Foods Guidelines

The Alliance developed the School Beverage and Competitive Foods Guidelines to help students make healthier food and beverage choices in the school environment. The Guidelines cover foods and beverages offered outside of the reimbursable meal program such as products sold in school vending machines, a la carte lines, snack bars, fundraisers, and school stores.

The Guidelines were designed by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation using the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2005 as well as the American Heart Association's Dietary Guidelines for Healthy Children and 2006Diet and Lifestyle Recommendations in order to balance children's nutritional needs with the requirement to manage caloric consumption.

By selecting products that meet the Alliance School Beverage and Competitive Foods Guidelines schools are able to:

  • PROMOTE the consumption of fruits, vegetables, low-fat and fat-free dairy in schools.
  • CHANGE the mix of products in vending machines to increase healthier options.
  • REDUCE the amount of fat, sugar, and sodium that kids consume during the school day.
  • PROVIDE lower calorie and more nutritious beverage options for children in schools.
  • TEACH students about appropriate portion sizes during the school day.

Check out the companies committed to providing healthier food and beverages in schools.

Find out more about how the Alliance is working with schools to create healthier environments through its  Healthy Schools Program .

The Impact: Changing the Landscape of School Beverages

The Guidelines have changed the school beverage landscape. Only lower-calorie, smaller-portion beverages are now available in schools.

Thanks to the landmark agreement between the beverage industry and the Alliance, a report commissioned by the American Beverage Association and developed by Keybridge Research in March 2010 shows:

  • There has been an 88 percent decrease in total beverage calories shipped to schools between the first half of the 2004-05 school year and the first half of the 2009-10 school year.
  • At the beginning of the 2009-10 school year, 98.8% of all measured schools and school districts were in compliance with the Alliance School Beverage Guidelines.
  • Shipment volumes of full-calorie carbonated soft drinks to schools were 95 percent lower in the first half of the 2009-10 school year than they were in the first half of the 2004-05 school year, before the Guidelines went into effect.
  • In 2004 high school students drank on average one 12 ounce can of full calorie carbonated soft drink at school per week. The 2009 high school shipment levels mean that the average high school student now consumes the equivalent of one can and a half of full calorie carbonated soft drink at school per year.

Read the complete  Alliance School Beverage Guidelines Final Progress Report 

Get Involved: Healthy Schools

Anyone interested in creating a healthier school environment by implementing the Guidelines; improving access to healthier foods; increasing physical activity opportunities before, during and after school; enhancing nutrition education; and establishing school employee wellness programs should join the Alliance for a Healthier Generation’s Healthy Schools Program which offers free access to a wealth of resources and tools to anyone who wants to help a school in his or her community become a healthier place for students to learn and staff to work. Sign up is free and easy so  join today !

 

 

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