As mentioned last week, we invited the four candidates who expressed interest in and/or support for our group and goals to share their thoughts on our 47-page report, For the Health of Our Children, An Analysis of the Wayzata Public Schools Culinary Program and Wellness Policy, and how they would support our goals if elected. Those candidates were: Bindu Moram, Sheila Prior, Seanne Falconer, and Linda Cohen. Late last week Emily Fair contacted us and we offered her the opportunity to share her information with us. This is her response:
"First of all, I’d like to thank Healthy Food + Health Habits for Wayzata Schools for giving me this opportunity to make a contribution to the effort in raising the awareness of the importance of healthy food and healthy habits. As a school teacher, I have witnessed students' eating habits during lunch everyday at school. And as a parent of a Wayzata school student, I share the same feeling with other parents. So I will share a school teacher and a parent’s perspective and offer solutions to this issue.
Following are my proposals, if elected.
(1) Establish a dedicated procedure including a flowchart laying out a framework of responsibilities, frequency of the work and ways of communication among Wayzata schools and School Board. When the procedure and flowchart are well established, it will make it easier to timely detect and fix any problems in nutrient deficiency/imbalance and eating habits among the student body.
(2) Establish an open platform for sharing results and for receiving feedback directly from parents and all school staff.
(3) Seek and promote more creative ways to prepare nutritious and delicious foods that students will enjoy eating and finish. Seek ways for school to provide different portion sizes to accommodate different students' needs, reducing food waste by smaller students and on the other hand making sure bigger students are well fed.
(4) Invite principals, classroom teachers and parent volunteers once every other week to have school lunch with students, talk to students, observe students’ preferences, eating portions and habits, and record these observations using a simple checklist.
(5) Reinforce and promote healthy food and eating habits in health education.
(6) Start implementing the dedicated procedure in one or all the kindergarten classes for 3 months and adjust the procedure before applying to other grades.
(7) Invite school board members to visit and eat lunch with students once a month and provide feedback on a similar checklist.
About me? I’ve been a dedicated teacher for 20+ years in serving students and working with parents on a daily basis; therefore, I am very clear about the groundwork in education in all aspects. Wayzata district schools maintain a record of high academic achievements that I hope to continue to build upon. As a teacher and a parent, I am clearly aware that student’s performance can be affected by nutrient deficiencies. Therefore, I will work as a school board member to improve students’ health and wellbeing by ensuring the schools building a robust lunch program and providing tasty, nutritious and healthy food to all the students!"
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