In January 2003, the San Francisco Board of Education voted to create a healthy-food policy in response to soaring childhood obesity and related deadly disorders.
Childhood obesity has tripled since 1970.
Rates of asthma, heart disease, high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes and other disorders in children have skyrocketed correspondingly.
Health professionals expect the current generation of children to be the first in modern history to live shorter life spans than their parents' generation, entirely due to obesity and related maladies.
Obesity and related health crises are far more severe among African-American, Latino and economically disadvantaged children.
Junk food is defined as food which is high in calories and low in nutritional value. The SFUSD's policy seeks to ensure that all food sold or served to students is high in vitamins, minerals, proteins, and fiber and not just high in calories - simply put, "No Empty Calories!"
The new district policy prohibits the schools from selling junk food in their cafeterias or vending machines, as one way of addressing the rising obesity/Type 2 diabetes crisis. Others ways of addressing this problem will include more nutrition education and, as funding becomes available, more PE programs.
Because children learn from the adults around them, parents, teachers, and staff are all encouraged to model good eating habits for students, including providing nutritious food for lunches and school parties and events, and refraining from using candy as rewards or prizes.
The average student sees over 10,000 advertisements per year for food, nearly all of it non-nutritious junk food, but research shows that children are more likely to be influenced by messages sent by the significant adults in their lives than by messages sent by the media. Modeling good eating habits for students can really make a difference in the fight against obesity.
Our mission is to address the issues of childhood obesity and physical fitness, remove junk food from the schools, increase participation in the National School Lunch Program, reduce the dependence of schools and school-related organizations on food-based fundraising, expand and improve opportunities for physical activities for students, and increase the amount of nutrition education offered to students and families.
The SFUSD Wellness Policy
Click here to read a Beginner’s Guide to the SFUSD nutrition standards
Click here to read about how you can ask Congress to provide more money for school food
Click here to read a short history of school food in the SFUSD, and to learn how catering trucks and other competitive sales threaten the financial viability of the school lunch program. Also available in Spanish and Chinese.
Healthy school food advocate Dana Woldow honored with Jefferson Award. Dana Woldow, parent volunteer chair of the SFUSD Student Nutrition and Physical Activity Committee, was presented with a Bay Area Jefferson Award in April 2007 for "volunteering hundreds of hours so that all of San Francisco's school children can eat healthier meals and get better nutrition." The Jefferson Awards for Public Service are presented to "encourage and honor individuals for their achievements and contributions through public and community service." Click here to read a San Francisco Chronicle report and here for the Jefferson Award website.
SFUSD's Wellness Policy and the Grab n Go Breakfast at Balboa High School have won a 'Victory Against Hunger' award from the Congressional Hunger Center and Victory Wholesale Grocers. Click here to read more about it.
San Francisco Unified has been named a winner of state schools chief Jack O'Connell's Superintendent's Challenge to encourage school districts to focus on nutrition and physical fitness.
Click here and scroll down for more information.
Stonyfield Farm salutes SFUSD's Wellness Policy as part of their California "Menu for Change" Program.
Click here and scroll down to read more about it.
SFUSD's a la carte menu wins an "A" from the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine.
Click here to learn more.
Shame on you! Click here to see which schools have been reported in violation of the Wellness Policy.
Click here to read about how you can ask Congress to provide more money for school food
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