curnowc Posted January 30, 2008 Report Share Posted January 30, 2008 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SCHOOL HEALTH ADVISORY COUNCIL School District No. 2, Yellowstone County High School District No. 2, Yellowstone County Billings, Montana November 13, 2007 The School Health Advisory Council met Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 4:00 pm in room 213 of Lincoln Center. Virginia Mermel presided over the meeting. Attending were, Bette Hunt, Bev McHugh, Bernie Mason, Thomas Harper, Anne Nichols, Sandy Shenton. Guest Nancy Hines. Introductions Virginia Mermel welcomed the committee and introduced Sandy Shenton, one of the new members of SHAC. Approval of Minutes The minutes from the October 9, 2007 meeting were presented. Bernie Mason moved and Bette Hunt seconded that the minutes be approved. Motion passed unanimously. Updates Virginia Mermel informed the committee that Susan Maier approached the SOAR (Students Organized Against Risk) program at the middle schools asking them to let SHAC make a presentation but was turned down. Susan is still working on this issue with Troy Zickefoose, the principal at Will James Middle School. One other item of interest is that the Hawkins School Nutrition Bill is back on the docket and is being pushed on the Senate floor. If it passes it will mandate uniform changes in school food sales designed to bring fund raising, snacks, and vending machine foods into compliance with USDA guidelines for Type A meals. Nancy Hines Nancy Hines, Director of Community Relations and Communications for the Billings Public Schools Office of Development and Advancement made a presentation to the committee on ways to increase general knowledge of the group’s actions by informing students, staff, parents and Billings community members. Nancy’s recommendation for improving visibility of the SHAC and its goals is to use a combination of the following strategies: Publicity- print and broadcast media Communication- include SHAC updates in school newsletters to parents, presentations at PTA meetings and to teachers during PIR days Events- sponsor events such as Sodexho’s Kids Can Cook Decision Makers-identify decisions makers and thought leaders Partnerships- Discussion took place on the best way to reach the community to inform them about SHAC. Nancy Hines suggestions included PAC’s, newsletters, websites, parent groups, elementary PTA’s, press releases and the Tempo Page in the Billings Gazette. Nancy Hines is willing to do press releases on anything of interest. Nancy Hines also suggested inviting a few members of the school council to a special luncheon as a way of gathering input from the schools and students. Bernie Mason suggested that a way of paying for this would be through grants. Virginia Mermel suggested contacting Dorothy Bonk at the College of Technology who teaches high school students from the Career Center (Café Protégé) to see if they are interested in teaming up with Sodexho to incorporate healthy food into the high school menu. In summary Nancy Hines suggested starting with newsletters, getting more information about SHAC on the SD -2 website and putting together a plan for talking to parent groups. Virginia asked Nancy to add an easy to locate tab to the Sodexho school menu screen to the SD-2 website so parents can find the info they want about school foods more easily. Nancy also suggested making PR/Communication a monthly discussion item on the SHAC agenda item and having a short discussion about PR efforts and opportunities meeting. Nancy is ready to create PR stories about the Creations food line Bette/Sodexho has implemented at the high schools. Virginia Mermel and Bev McHugh will develop a few general concepts about SHAC and send them to Nancy Hines who will develop these concepts into information that can be shared with the public. Vending Machine Challenges Virginia Mermel reported to the committee that some of the healthy snacks most notably the Nabisco 100 calorie snacks and a Mars brand nut mix with mini chocolate chips that have been placed in the vending machines at the high schools are not selling. Students feel the price point on the 100 calorie snacks is too high and do not understand the nutritional value of the nuts and chocolate chip blend. Items like Lays baked chips and oatmeal cookies are selling well. Vendors would rather provide healthier foods in the vending machines so they can leave the machines turned on all day. Finding acceptable healthy vending items is important to maintaining vending as source of revenue for activities programs at the high schools that don’t have other sources of funding. Students have expressed an interest in more chilled vending machines supplying yogurt, yogurt, parfaits, fruit salads, etc. However, Automated Vending, the company with most of the school snack vending contracts has a limited number of chilled machines and too little staff to keep them stocked. Student Support for Fit Kids and Shape Up Event Virginia Mermel and Paul Manning (YMCA) are meeting with Dr. Samples from MSU-B on Friday Nov 16th to see if they can get college students to help implement the Fit Kids and Shape Up Montana programs slated to run in the SD-2 schools Feb 1st-April 30th. Dr. Randolfi had promised student helpers from MSUB before he took an unexpected 2-year leave. Upcoming Meetings Tuesday December 11, 2007 - 4:00-6:00 P.M. Room 213 Lincoln Center Tuesday January 8, 2008- - 4:00-6:00 P.M. Room 213 Lincoln Center Respectfully submitted: __________________________ Virginia Mermel, Chair ____________________ Cindy Curnow, Recorder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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