Healthy Kids, Smart Kids Chapter 2

Starting a Revolution is the second chapter in Dr. Yvonne Sanders-Butler's book named, "Healthy Kids, Smart Kids".

I will talk first about how and why she planned to change the  grade school where she was principal into a Sugar-Free Zone.  She noticed that her students were most often referred to the school health care worker early in the day, before 9 AM. The children appeared sluggish and complained of headaches and stomach ailments.  She then asked the students if they ate breakfast and felt the answer was no too often.  She knew that breakfast was the most important meal of the day and that is must contain healthy foods not empty calories. 

She also noticed that there were many counseling and discipline referrals directly after a meal, which indicated to her that what her students were eating was contributing to the problem.  Around the time she was noticing these problems, she also noticed a number of overweight students in the school.

She started watching what the kids brought to school for lunch.  She also made note of what was usually served for lunch in the cafeteria.  The cafeteria usually served french fries, pizza, macaroni and cheese and fried chicken.  She also learned that most kids drank chocolate milk and gobbled down sweet desserts while leaving most of the main dish on their trays.

So after these high-fat, high-calorie, high-sugar lunches, at least a third of the students returned to their classrooms and fell asleep or became hyperactive and started bouncing off the walls.  She needed her students to get and stay focused by making sweeping changes in what the kids ate. 

Once she had a plan she gathered a team of students, teachers, custodians, bus drivers, cafeteria workers and grocery store managers.  She shared with them her vision for change and asked for their help in making changes. 

Some changes implemented were bus drivers were given permission to confiscate any candy or other high-sugar, high-fat foods from any child on their buses and then given to the principal.  The same procedure applied to the classrooms.  The teachers were able to confiscate these items as well.  All were asked to model eating healthy foods in front of the children. Changes were made to the school lunch menu. She gave cooking classes and allowed kids to test out her treats and let them make suggestions of ways to make the recipe better.  She also made lists of healthy foods and gave them to the grocery store owners and they began to stock these "health nut" foods in the store. 

It seems she thought of everything.  I will continue to describe how her school became a Sugar-Free Zone in future articles.