Whether driven by national statistics on childhood obesity or local concerns for student health, many school boards have adopted policies addressing student nutrition and physical activity. As a result of new state and federal requirements regarding school food choices, districts will need to update existing policies, or begin a process to develop new policies in the coming months.

Federal Legislation Recently enacted federal legislation now mandates that, not later than the first day of the school year beginning after June 30, 2006, districts receiving federal funding for child nutrition, including school breakfast, lunch, after-school snack, and summer school food programs, must adopt a local school wellness policy.

While school districts may choose to include additional features or to integrate student wellness with other ongoing programs, at a minimum the school wellness policy must have the following elements:

• Goals for nutrition education, physical activity, and other school-based activities that are designed to promote student wellness;
• Nutrition guidelines selected by the district for all foods available on each school campus during the school day;
• Assurances that guidelines for reimbursable school meals are not less restrictive than regulations and guidance issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture;
• Ways of measuring how effectively the school wellness policy is being implemented, including designation of one or more persons at each school with operational responsibility for ensuring that the school is meeting the policy; and
• Involvement of parents, students, food service professionals and the public in developing the wellness policy.

State Regulations In addition to federal legislation, new state regulations establish two separate local school nutrition policy requirements and implementation dates. According to the New Jersey Department of Agriculture, these requirements apply to public and non-public schools that participate in any of the federally-funded child nutrition programs, and for any other nonparticipating public schools that have 5 percent or more students eligible for free or reduced price meals.

2006 State Requirements Under the regulations, local districts must adopt a policy by September 2006 that conforms to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the USDA nutrition standards for national school lunch, school breakfast and/or after-school snack programs. This code provision is intended to regulate the types of food items offered outside the federal meal requirements, such as a la carte sales, vending machines, school stores and fundraisers.

This code provision incorporates the USDA Dietary Guidelines that include key elements, such as adequate nutrients within calorie needs; weight management; and physical activity. According to the guidelines, examples of eating patterns that exemplify these standards may be found in the USDA Food Guide.

2007 State Requirements The regulations further require that, by September 2007, those districts participating in federally-funded child nutrition programs must have a policy consistent with the New Jersey Department of Agriculture’s Model School Nutrition Policy. As previously mentioned, this is a minimum standard and does not preclude the adoption of a more prescriptive policy by a school district.

The model policy produced by the New Jersey Department of Agriculture contains very specific directives as to the percentages of sugars, fats and other ingredients that may be contained in foods served in a la carte lines, vending machines, snack bars, school stores and fundraisers before the end of the school day.

Therefore, it is recommended that districts immediately begin planning for adoption and implementation of this policy, which may require review of existing food service and vending machine contracts and procedures.

While the New Jersey Department of Agriculture has advised that the model to be adopted by 2007 meets the federal local wellness requirement, districts should be aware that the federal regulations have required a policy to be adopted in 2006.

Developing Policy Before developing a new policy, it is recommended that boards review all existing policies addressing student health, school food, nutrition and physical education. These policies may form the basis for the more specific local wellness/nutrition policy, or may otherwise need revision. Of course, this is an area where it is essential to collaborate with district health professionals and local nutrition experts.

NJSBA has revised its model food service policy and legal reference pages (file code 3542) to reflect these new laws. They are available on our Web site on the Critical Policy Reference Manual.

Districts should also allow sufficient time in the policy adoption process to meet the federal requirement to involve parents, students, the community and others in the development of their policy, and may want to consider forming a local ad hoc advisory panel on student nutrition and physical activity to facilitate this. In this regard, NJSBA’s model policies on participation by the public (file code 1200) and ad hoc advisory committees (file code 1220) may be useful.

There are several sources of information available on the Internet to provide guidance to districts in developing and implementing a local wellness/nutrition policy, including Action for Healthy Kids, School Wellness Policies, and the United States Department of Agriculture.