The 2014-2015 school year has
been an exciting one for Bronx Health REACH. With recently awarded funding from
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), we've welcomed three new
staff members, and plan to bring on two more later this spring. This growth
allows our team to dedicate even more time and energy to addressing barriers to
health equity in the Bronx.
With
our new REACH funding from the CDC, we have awarded several small grants to a number
of our community partners. Churches, schools, and local organizations will
receive funding to implement various projects aimed at improving access to
healthy food and physical activity. Four of our 22 school partners were given grants
to address nutrition. The funding will go towards compensating teachers for
attending professional development trainings and workshops on nutrition
education outside regular school hours; purchasing nutrition education curricula/materials;
and coordinating field trips to local farmers markets. In an effort to make
nutrition education a sustainable part of classroom instruction, this project
will help teachers integrate nutrition topics into their existing lesson plans.
In addition to these four schools, two other schools were given funding for
Active Design projects. The goal is to increase physical activity through creative
design and infrastructure changes in schools.
This
new REACH initiative goes hand-in-hand with Bronx Health REACH’s existing schools-based
work through its Healthy Schools NY grant, from the NY State Department of
Health. This grant allows us to provide technical assistance to our 22 school
partners in meeting city and state mandates for school wellness; to establish
school wellness councils; and to support them in expanding health-related
programming that promotes healthy eating and physical fitness. During the past
eight months, four of our schools submitted successful applications for School
Wellness Council Grants through the NYC Department of Education (DOE) Office of
School Wellness. Other school successes include: three schools transitioned to
the Alternative Menu, four schools signed on to work with a new nutrition
education program, and four schools submitted successful applications for
school garden grants through Grow to Learn NYC.
One
challenge that has been consistently present throughout our work in the schools
is the lack of capacity and resources schools face when providing their
students with physical education. We have been collaborating with New York
Lawyers for the Public Interest on their PE for All Coalition—a city-wide
effort to ensure students’ rights to a quality physical education program. A reporting
bill that would require the DOE to report on which schools are complying with
state mandates for PE has recently been introduced into the City Council. This
is an important development that Bronx Health REACH and its Nutrition and
Fitness Workgroup members are excited by and supportive of. The bill’s passing
would be an important step towards the goal of full compliance by NYC public
schools with the PE/PA mandate for its students.
One topic we would like to see mandated is a
coordinated and institutionalized nutrition education program in NYC DOE
schools. Currently, the standards for nutrition education are couched within a
weak health education and physical education mandate. Furthermore, there are few
incentives in place to prompt schools to opt in to a nutrition education
program. With strong input from our partners who specialize in nutrition
education and student wellness, we are planning to draft a series of
recommendations for nutrition education for the policy makers at NYCDOE and
NYCDOH to consider and act on. The aforementioned policies represent only a few
of the policy changes that we and our partners are promoting.
In
addition to local projects and policies, there are state and nation-wide policy
issues which directly affect children’s ability to live healthy lifestyles. Bronx
Health REACH and many of our partners are watching with intense interest the
reintroduction of the Fitness Integrated into Teaching (FIT) Kids Act. This year the bill’s language includes the restoration
of a 37% cut to the only source of federal grant funding dedicated to physical
education (the Physical Education Program, or PEP). The FIT Kids Act
would provide support for PEP’s work, including curriculum evaluation, fitness
assessment reporting, data collection and professional development for health
and physical education teachers. For more information about this bill, please
contact
kristy.anderson@heart.org.
We are also closely monitoring the 2015 Childhood Nutrition
Reauthorization (CNR). This bill will have a major impact on the nutritional
standards and access to healthy foods for children across the country.
NYC4CNR, a local coalition of partners working on
child nutrition issues, is advocating for a strong CNR that will ensure NYC
children are healthy, well-nourished, and ready to learn. Additionally, CNR
advocates strengthening local economies and communities.
The Nutrition and Fitness workgroup affords those of us working in the Bronx
to coordinate efforts through policy and system changes at the local, state and
national levels. Our monthly workgroup meetings allow us to share and
collaborate with our community partners to improve and promote school wellness.
The workgroup also offers a powerful opportunity to mobilize organizations and
individuals who are working towards a common goal. We look forward to identifying new opportunities for collaboration in
our upcoming workgroup meetings and to achieving tangible policy changes
throughout the year.
