• Wellness Policy Guidelines: A Dairy Check-up!
• Coming Soon! A Wellness Policy to Your School
• Improving Nutrition and Physical Activity Can Boost Academic and Financial Bottom Lines
• Take Action for Healthy Kids
• Schools Can Help Address the Obesity Issue
• Overweight Yet Undernourished

Wellness Policy Guidelines: A Dairy Check-up!
Milk and other dairy foods are nutrient powerhouses! Use this checklist to make sure that your school's wellness policy encourages consumption of these foods and does not unintentionally restrict milk or dairy consumption.  Download checklist (PDF).

Coming Soon! A Wellness Policy to Your School
By the July 1, 2006, every school participating in federal meal programs must develop a policy for nutrition education, physical education, and nutrition guidelines for all foods sold on campus, not just in the cafeteria. In other words, school must have guidelines for what foods it sells, but it's up to the school what those guidelines are. Because school is where many students get their entire dairy consumption for a day, milk can, and should be, an important part of any wellness policy. Read more about Dairy Foods and Your School Wellness Policy.

Editor's Note: Federal standards for school meals and similar regulations will remain in place.

Nutrition, Physical Activity and the Learning Connection
A landmark report from Action for Healthy Kids documents how the excessive rise in poor nutrition, inactivity and weight problems is adversely affecting academic achievement and possibly costing schools millions of dollars each year. The report calls on schools to work with partners to address the issue and points to current best practices in schools, school districts, and states.

Download Learning Connection highlights (PDF).

Read the full report.

Take Action for Healthy Kids
Action for Healthy Kids (AFHK), a nationwide, grassroots organization dedicated to promoting healthy school environments, has brought together 40 education, health, nutrition and physical activity organizations and spurred the creation of 51 state teams. Find out what's happening in your state and how you can become involved at www.actionforhealthykids.org.

Read the "Report on the Healthy Schools Summit and the Action for Healthy Schools Initiative" (PDF).

Schools Can Help Address Childhood Overweight and Obesity
Childhood overweight and obesity is a serious health problem and one that schools can help address. Download American School Board Journal articles that provide an overview of what schools are doing to meet it head on, "Beyond Baby Fat" (PDF) and "The Obesity Epidemic" (PDF) and "Eat Drink and Be Healthy" (PDF).

• The American Academy of Pediatrics' (AAP) "Prevention of Pediatric Overweight and Obesity" Policy Statement proposes strategies for preventing childhood overweight and obesity, including decreasing the availability of foods and beverages with little nutritional value. Visit the AAP Web site for the complete policy.
• A report issued by the Institute of Medicine lays out a comprehensive, national strategy to reverse the rapid rise in childhood obesity. Learn more about "Preventing Obesity: Health in the Balance."

Children's Health Paradox: Overweight Yet Undernourished
An estimated 13 percent of 9- to 11-year-olds, almost double the number in 1980, are overweight, yet they aren't getting the nutrients they need to stay healthy and perform in the classroom. Learn More (PDF).