BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — The Greenfield Union School District is the first in Kern County to join the Certified Healthy Schools Initiative, promoting nutritious meals and healthier lifestyles for students.
- Greenfield Union School District is the first in Kern County to participate in the Certified Healthy Schools Initiative.
- The initiative ensures that schools serve meals that meet state and federal guidelines.
- The program aims to improve physical growth, development, and school performance by providing healthier food choices.
- The district is working toward achieving Gold Status by offering additional healthy options, such as garden spaces or salad bars.
- Kern County Public Health encourages other districts to adopt similar programs to promote healthier eating.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Kern County Public Health is teaming up with the Greenfield School District with a plan to serve healthy, nutritious meals to students. The goal is to provide for the physical and mental development of students.
The Certified Healthy School Program highlights local restaurants that make healthy food options available in Kern County and is now expanding this program to schools.
The Greenfield Union School District is the first school district in the county to adapt this new program.
The goal is to help students achieve better school performance and overall better health.
Byrnn Carrigan, is the Director for Kern County Public Health, and she says, “In Kern County, we struggle with extremely high rates of obesity and chronic diseases, so equipping our community with the education, knowledge, and skills to eat healthier and live a healthier lifestyle to combat those diseases is extremely important. Starting with our children is key to getting ahead of those rates.”
Joshua Rogers is the Director for Nutrition at the Greenfield Union School District, and he says we need to break the stigma around school food. “The stigma with parents and students is that school food is bad. I would encourage everybody to try school food because it has changed over the years from parents right now when they’re going to school and changed to what it is right now.” He said.
The Certified Healthy Schools Initiative works by ensuring districts are serving meals that meet state and federal regulations. The meals are certified to meet specific guidelines, such as offering at least 50% whole grains, providing 5 cups of fruit weekly, keeping calories under 850 per meal, and avoiding trans fats, among other requirements.
“We really are building our lifestyles from the ground up when we are very young, and equipping our children early in life with the skills to eat healthier and exercise regularly is equipping them with what they need to live a healthy lifestyle for the long haul.” Carrigan said.
Carrigan hopes that students can take the knowledge they’ve gained about food at school and use it to educate their families.
The next step for Greenfield is to reach Gold Status, which means the schools are going above and beyond to offer more healthy meal choices, like a garden on campus or a salad bar. The district says that’s their next step.
The county is encouraging other districts to do the same when it comes to serving nutritious foods.
Certified Healthy Schools Initiative website
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