Good food in Decorah schools

Winneshiek County schools are improving their food and fitness environments in light of the national movement to curb the paradoxical challenges of childhood obesity and hunger, according to Flannery Cerbin, communications liaison with the NE Iowa Food and Fitness Initiative (FFI).

One of nine national sites funded by the WK Kellogg Foundation Food and Community Program, FFI has been helping schools in Northeast Iowa develop a School Wellness Action Plan.

"By creating healthier options at school meals and increasing opportunities for physical activity, (Decorah schools are) fostering environments where students can work and play," Cerbin says. "Good nutrition and physical activity improve student health and academic performance, and decrease behavioral problems."

Emily Neal is the FFI resource contact for Decorah and North Winneshiek schools.

Coordinator for school outreach for the last five years at Luther College, Neal says the college recently partnered with FFI  to help make the school outreach efforts of FFI more sustainable.

"Luther has had a long standing role with their outreach efforts to schools, and the fit seemed great," she says.

"My work has in the past focused on ‘environmental education' and sustainability. It is becoming increasingly clear that all of these three things -- our environment, our health and our hopes for the future -- are intricately linked."

School Wellness Team
Working with FFI, Gina Holthaus, a health and physical education teacher for Decorah schools, along with Decorah Schools Superintendent Mike Haluska, last November formed the Decorah School Wellness Team -- a communitywide committee of health care and nutrition professionals, educators, parents and students in Decorah looking at ways to increase school wellness.

Neal is a member of the committee.

"I am so very excited and thrilled to be part of a team that is looking at the education of the whole child, their mind, body and spirit," she says.
Healthy food at school.

Another member of the Decorah School Wellness Team, Jane Bullerman is in her seventh year as food service director for Decorah Public Schools.

As a long-time advocate for vegetables and fresh foods in school, she is particularly excited about the success of Decorah high school's first  garden.

"I can't even tell you all we got out of it this year," she says. "They were taking fresh greens from the garden even late into the season, by covering  rows to protect the lettuce leaves from frost."

With the installation of a greenhouse on school grounds this spring, Bullerman continues, "The plan is to be able to have fresh vegetables all year-round."

The garden is going to be bigger next year, too; and Bullerman says  students are already asking her for suggestions about what to plant.

"Having kids try new things and learn how to garden," she says, is the most gratifying thing about her work with the Decorah schools wellness team.

"When they grow up, they're going to change things."

A community effort
General manager of the Oneota Community Food Co-op in Decorah, David Lester has over 14 years of experience in the retail food industry, and says the most exciting thing about the Decorah School Wellness Team is that this is a group or community effort.

"On this committee or team, there are students, teachers, administrators, community members and parents all invested in creating a healthier atmosphere in the schools," he says.

"It is also exciting that students will have a key role in making a lot of these ideas become real ... that is very cool," he continues.

"As a parent, I want my kids to have options. They should have the option to have access to locally grown, healthy, whole foods. I think kids are very ‘out of touch' as to how food is grown and made into a meal that they eat … I think less processed foods and more food education will have many benefits that will help with childhood obesity and maintaining energy levels and concentration in class. I have seen and heard that kids are craving this kind of change, and they want to be involved."

Neal concurs.

"For so long educational success has been determined by academic performance," she says. "But we are beginning to realize, is that children do better when they feel better."

By Julie Berg-Raymond, www.decorahnewspapers.com, 2/8/11