We expect our schools not only to educate our children but to keep them safe in the process. A healthy environment with adequate physical activity and nutritious food is as essential as number 2 pencils. 
Lynchburg City Schools were looking for help with recess. Enter Playworks, a national non-profit working to transform recess for more than 16 years. In the 2011-112 school year, Playworks has full time coaches in 360 schools in 22 cities. In 2012, Lynchburg joined the gang!
***New FREE program from Amazement Square - AmazementSquare_HealthProgramsFlyer can be taught in the museum or YOUR classroom. Contact the School Programs Specialist at 434-845-1888 (ext 15) or email
You don’t have time to reinvent the wheel. Take advantage of what other teachers have figured out!
The Healthy Schools Campaign website has great resources for teachers – including this article on non-candy rewards for students and this one on speed cup stacking!
Here are some ideas collected by teachers for keeping energy going in the classroom – and rewarding effort.
More ideas for non-food rewards !
Another site called Learning Matters has a helpful article on how to motivate students.
This Canadian site called Nutrition in the Classroom has innovative ideas for healthy learning activities.
Can you walk to school? Do you hate traffic? Do you wish you didn’t have to wait for the bus? You should consider walking or riding your bike to school! It’s healthy for you and saves money. If it seems far, or you need help with supervision, consider developing a walking school bus where different families can join forces to help students walk to school safely!
Fire Up Your Feet is a core program of the Safe Routes to School National Partnership. This website provides a full range of age-appropriate resources and educational materials to encourage physical activity to, from and at school. Any school or PTA group in the country can utilize these resources. Fire Up Your Feet fundraising provides PTAs and school groups a healthy, easy choice for a school fundraisers.
Keep it simple.
Half of what you pack should be fruits and vegetables. One fruit and one vegetable is easy. Carrots, apples, organges, banana, celery sticks, pears, tangerines, raisins, craisins, sugar snap peas… Cut it up and add a little low fat ranch dressing or yogurt for dipping.
1/4 of what you pack should be protein and 1/4 should be whole grains. These often combine nicely. Peanut butter on wheat bread. Leftover cold chicken slices and wheat crackers. If your child has access to a microwave, whole wheat spaghetti with a meat sauce on top. A mozzarella stick and two rolls of deli sliced turkey.
Your child may be used to cartoon characters on the fruit snacks (that don’t have any fruit in them) or lunchables. Studies show that this marketing tool convinces kids to LOVE these unhealthy “foods.” Turn the tables! Add a napkin with his favorite character on it to grab his attention. Use a cookie cutter to cut a star into the sandwich bread. 
Tell your child you are sending Spiderman snap peas that help those wall-climbing muscles!
Times are tight – and schools want to raise extra money. No problem. Selling cookie dough or pizza or even baked goods to make that money? Problem.
It’s against our school wellness policy, first of all, and second, it encourages our students to eat excessive calories. If one out of three students are overweight, are we really helping them with these unhealthy fundraisers? We need to consider the benefit with respect to the harm. Still not convinced why you can’t just have a bake sale? Read this!
Brainstorm with your group to find what would help you raise money best and still promote health in our schools. Here are a few ideas:
T-shirts, shorts, hair clips/bows, wristbands, cups, pens, pencils, notebooks, binders, key chains, magnets, balls, jump ropes, stickers, picture frames, reusable lunch containers, lunch bags, Candles, Books
Water, calendars, Stationary, jump drives, ipad covers, iphone covers, Greeting cards, Fruit, Holiday trees, wreaths, Jewelry, First aid kits, Plants, Flower seed packets, bulbs, Gift wrap, Grocery bags, Car wash, Fun run, singing telegrams…
In May 2012, Paul Munro Elementary held a special fundraiser to buy a gift for the school’s 50th anniversary. During the Move-a-thon, each student was in motion for 50 minutes with a variety of activities (jumping rope, running, hopscotch, cheerleading, jumping jacks, throwing balls, hula hoops, balloon toss) and had gotten pledges for each minute of movement. The kids loved the activity, parents were happy to support the cause without having to buy more cupcakes or brownies!
Money raised, kids healthy. No problem!
Want more ideas of how you can actually combine healthy activity and fundraising - Go here and here.
Contact us at livehealthylynchburg@gmail.com if you have more ideas for us to share!
Here are two great sites with information and inspiration for how to have school parties without an excess of sugar.
Center for Science in the Public Interest
As a parent, it can be difficult to break the habit of bringing cupcakes for a birthday or holiday celebration. Don’t forget that those sweet treats are against the LCS school wellness policy, and consider bringing something that will bring joy to the class for more than that one moment of consumption. Glow sticks, balloons, stickers, tattoos, coloring sheets, erasers, pencils, and even party hats could help your child celebrate! What’s the big deal? Read More about why the wellness policy is important!
One mom’s blog called School Bites has even more ideas. 
At the Paul Munro Carnival in the spring of 2012, there was a healthy food table with water, fruit, veggies, sandwiches and information about eating healthy. It wasn’t intended to replace the pizza and treats that are expected at Carnival – but to give parents and kids some healthy choices. We saw plenty of plates with pizza and apple slices, or nachos and carrots – and we made money too!
For the first time in 15 years, standards for school lunches were updated to offer healthier meals to children nationwide. In January 2012, First Lady Michelle Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack revealed the new meal requirements, which affect more than 32 million kids who participate in school meal programs. This integral piece of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, part of the First Lady’s Let’s Move! Campaign, was signed into law by President Obama.
The 2012 standards include:
• Increased offerings of fruits and vegetables every day from 1/2 – 3/4 cup to 3/4 -1 cup of vegetables plus 1/2 to 1 cup of fruit per day. Weekly vegetable requirements include a variety such as dark leafy greens as well as beans and peas.
• Increased servings of whole grain to at least one-half of each grain serving offered and by July 2014, all grains must be whole grains.
• Offering proper portion sizes and caloric intake based on age.
• Offering Fat free milk (unflavored/flavored) or 1% (unflavored)
• Reducing saturated and trans fats and sodium.
These changes will be phased in over the next three years, beginning with the 2012-2013 school year, to give schools adequate time to implement the new standards. Lunch will be the focus in the first year, followed by changes in breakfast the next two years. The new standards are expected to cost $3.2 billion over the next five years. Reference: Today’s Dietician
We know that healthy kids do better in school.
This survey showed that students who are inactive, watch more TV, drink more soda, or have unhealthy eating habits are more likely to get Cs,Ds, and Fs.
The Lynchburg City Schools Wellness Policy was recently updated by the School Health Advisory Board, and it is awaiting a vote by the School Board. The previous wellness policy is here.
One key item is that snacks brought in from home must meet nutrition standards. This means foods offered should have <10g of saturated fat, < or + 640g of sodium, and zero grams of trans fat. The goal calories for a meal are 550-650 calories for grades K-5/ 600-700 calories for grades 6-8/ 750-850 calories for grades 9-12, so no one snack item (candy, cupcakes, or ice cream) should exceed this number.
Here is the accessory booklet to the Lynchburg Wellness Policy with creative ideas to help schools follow the wellness policy.
Fuel Up to Play 60 is a program founded by the National Dairy Council and NFL, in collaboration with USDA, that empowers students to take charge in making small, everyday changes at school. Their website offer FREE ideas for encouraging health in schools, encourages students to choose what challenges would best suit the school, and provides incentives. Students can win cool prizes, like an NFL player visit or Super Bowl tickets, for choosing good-for-you foods and getting active for at least 60 minutes every day.
Bass Elementary, Bedford Hills, Dearington, Heritage Elementary & High, Linkhorne Elementary, Paul Munro, LCA, RS Payne, Perrymont, Sandusky Elementary & Middle, Sheffield, TC Miller, New Vistas, and EC Glass are ALL Fuel Up to Play 60 Schools! Go HERE to see a list of supporters for this program.
One way to improve our children’s health in school will be to have gardens in schools. This website has suggestions how.
This site discusses how to use your school garden to host a fundraiser! 
It’s not too soon to start planning for your middle or high school student to join a team next year. Lynchburg City Schools require a physical form be filled out by a doctor on or after May 1, 2012 in order for each athlete to safely participate next year. The form can be downloaded here. 
It is essential that a PARENT fill out the medical history portion of the form since children are often unaware of family medical problems.
Mass screenings are not as effective in identifying potential concerns for an athlete – every child needs a medical home. Please call your child’s doctor to get this physical done as soon as possible. If your child does not have a primary care doctor, contact the coach or athletic director for assistance.
High school fall sports starts training July 30th. The summer goes by too fast – and the doctors are often unable to schedule a physical if you wait until the last minute. 
A new rule this year allows preseason work-outs and training for winter and spring sports – so even if your child won’t have competition until the winter or spring – you need their physical done before they can participate in preseason activities.
As we have become more aware of the challenge of making our schools more healthy, we have become more organized. Lynchburg became an ACHIEVE community and began a dedicated and intense review of current health policies and implementation in our schools. Read More
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Childcare center directors in Central Virginia are invited to attend a health promotion program about immunization rates, hosted by Liberty University’s Masters of Public Health Program in collaboration with Smart Beginnings of Central Virginia.
Immunization Best Practices in Virginia – April 30, 2013 - 6:00pm to 7:30pm
DeMoss Hall, Room 1104
An educational segment will be provided by Dr. Richard Lane MD, MPH & TM, FACPM. Door prizes will be given.
Parking after 5pm is permitted in all lots; suggested parking by the Vines Center and enter in the front on the lower level of DeMoss Hall. Refreshments will be provided.
Please RSVP by April 19, 2013 to Kailyn Robertson, Kmrobertson2@liberty.edu
January 19th was Healthy Youth Day. Check out this video to see how much kids enjoy being active and eating healthy foods!
All of our schools want to provide a healthy enviroment. Use these links to find out more about nutrition and exercise goals at your child’s school.
Lynchburg City Schools webpage has individual links to each school.
Holy Cross Regional Catholic School
Virginia Episcopal School (VES)
This PDF from the CDC gives a structured outline for how to make a difference in our schools.
Averett University - Health & Wellness
Bluefield College – Health Services
Central Virginia Community College
Liberty University – Health Services
Lynchburg College – Health Center
Mary Baldwin College – Wellness – this page is a little different! Check it out and see if your college would consider expanding its resources
Randolph College – Health Center
Sweet Briar College – Health and Counseling
The Virginia School Board Association is putting together a cookbook of healthy school meals and is inviting all school divisions to submit recipes for the cookbook. The goal is to have a cookbook that is filled with recipes for quick and nutritious breakfasts, kid-pleasing lunches, after-school snacks, and favorite family dinners. This should be recipes that could not only feed a school but also that can be converted to feed a family.
Please send all recipes to the attention of Gina Patterson via email (gina@vsba.org). The deadline to submit recipes will be July 1, 2012. 
The cookbook will be made available to all attendees at the 2012 VSBA Annual Convention.
In 2012, Lynchburg Grows was awarded funding from the Centra Foundation, through the Live Healthy Lynchburg grant application, to develop a mobile produce market. 
The van is in need of an artistic, colorful design that excites the community at large before the mobile produce market launches this spring. All elementary, middle, and high school students in Lynchburg City Schools are encouraged to submit a design for the van wrap contest. Three winning designs will be chosen to adorn the van, which will make stops at apartment complexes, neighborhood centers, and other sites in the food deserts.
The rules are simple.
The deadline for entries is noon on April 12, 2013 at the following locations:
Winners will be announced on Friday, April 19, 2013.
Download the registration form: VAN DESIGN REGISTRATION 2013