School Nutrition Policies in Prince Edward Island Dr Jennifer Taylor Associate Professor Department of Family & Nutritional Sciences Co-Chair, PEI Healthy Eating Alliance

Where it all began…

Full Implementation Elementary School Nutrition Policy Full Implementation 2006 Development Elementary School Nutrition Policy Development PEI Timeline: Elementary School Nutrition Policy Development, Implementation and Evaluation School Food Survey 2001 Children’s food survey School Food Survey Tremblay & Willms Report on Childhood Obesity Ont vs PEI survey School policy adherence

In 2002, PEI Children Had Poor Eating Habits  Too little: Milk Products, Vegetables & Fruit  Too much: Soft drinks French fries High fat/sugary snacks Evers, Taylor, Manske, & Midgett, 2001; Taylor, Bradley, & Peacock, 2003

Before PEI had nutrition policies in schools (2002)…  68% sold regular hot dogs  >90% sold pepperoni pizza, chicken nuggets  67% that had canteens sold chips  4/5 foods in vending machines were unhealthy  54% schools used food for fundraising

It is critical that schools are not part of the “obesigenic environment”

Elementary Nutrition Policy Development: From the Bottom Up  Dept Health contracted with HEA to develop policies  Schools without cafeterias  School district level  17 “Lead” schools across the province

Allowing Schools to Talk and Have Input Throughout the Process…  Increased Ownership AND started the change process: “Thank you for listening and I really hope this is something you could help us turn into policy and action.” “It was great to see how other schools deal with these issues.” “[We appreciated]….the interaction between other schools and realizing that the same problems are everywhere.”

Allowing Schools to Talk and Have Input Throughout the Process…  Increased “expert” understanding of the school change process  Helped identify policy elements most likely to make a difference AND most likely to be implementable

 “.....I don’t think we can make drastic changes, I think it’s a process, I think we need to keep working and make a few changes....it’s a process of years for schools...because it’s better slowly...than to go quickly and then miss the boat...”  Principal, from Freeze, 2006.

PEI Elementary Policy Elements  Same policy was adopted 2005/06 by all 3 school districts (province wide)  Elements: 1. Nutrition Education 2. Student Access to food 3. Quality of Food Available

Availability of Healthy Food Choices  4 food based lists  Why? No cafeterias; volunteer lunch programs/canteens Concern that complicated policies would impede adherence Avoid complete bans on foods (Satter approach)

Support for Implementation

 Challenges: Role clarification needed: HEA vs School Districts Inadequate staff resources  No community dietitians assigned to schools Sustainability of networking meetings: costly due to teacher substitute fees

What?!...An “F”??

But…positive change is already happening Canteens: 2002 vs.2005 ** * * p<0.05 ** p<0.001

Foods Sold at Lunch: * * p<0.05

Issues  Bottom up approach has been effective re: “buy in”  Bottom up + top down needed Policy revision, then provincial adoption Funding, sustainability

Conclusions  Political will, public focus on acute care an ongoing challenge  Intermediate/Senior High policies in development; will have nutrient rather than food based standards

Acknowledgements Thanks to schools and teachers!