NuNews
Winter 2003 - Volume 5
In the Know with Family Mealtime

• Unviersity Studies Support the Value of Family Meals
• School Meals are Learning Centers
• Schools Can Promote Healthy Eating and Encourage Family Mealtime
• Downloadable Parents' Newsletter
• Give us your feeback!
• Past issues of the NuNews Newsletter
Schools can promote healthy eating and encourage family mealtime.12

Advise faculty, staff, and administrators of activities they can implement at school that will support the family meal.

School Food Service Staff can …

  • E-mail this edition of NuNews™ to the school principal, teachers, PTA officers, coaches and other influential staff.
  • Encourage PTA officers to distribute the parent version of NuNews™ highlighting the value of family mealtime during PTA meetings, include in school newsletters, and post on the school website.
  • Invite parents and grandparents to have lunch with their children. Ask them to meet with food service staff for a 10-minute discussion on the nutritional value of the school meal and how parents’ eating with children promotes other positive behaviors, including academic performance.
  • Involve students and parents in planning school menus. Send recipes of foods served during school lunch home with students to make for the family meal.
  • Offer school meals that reflect cultural diversity.

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Teachers can …

  • Send copies of the cafeteria menu, along with this copy of the parent’s version of NuNews™ home with students.
  • Involve families, PTAs and other leaders of community organizations (librarian, scout leaders, etc) in nutrition education activities that are taught in the classroom. Ask them to provide additional opportunities to promote healthy eating.
  • Work with the school food service staff, coaches, and principal to coordinate nutrition education efforts to give students and parents consistent messages about lifelong healthy eating.
  • Link nutrition classroom activities with the school lunch program, e.g., ethnic meals with social studies.
  • Model healthy eating to their students.

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School Administrators and School Board Members can …

  • Participate in Family Day on the fourth Monday in September and promote parents eating dinner with their children.
  • Educate parents and teachers on the value of the family meal by distributing this NuNews™ newsletter to parents and teachers. Also post it on the school website.
  • Organize a school health and nutrition advisory committee that includes parents to support nutrition education as part of a comprehensive health education program.
  • Make sure students have enough time to eat and play in safe, comfortable areas.
  • Have ongoing in-service training on health and nutrition for faculty and food service staff.

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For more information, go to these websites …

http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/nfsmi/ http://www.bcm.tmc.edu/cnrc/
Adolescent
& School Health
http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dash/index.htm http://www.casacolumbia.org/

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This newsletter was written by Frances A. Coletta, Ph.D., R.D., Nutrition Consultant for The Schwan Food Company, and designed by Lori Muraski.

An external review has been conducted by Mary Story, Ph.D., R.D., Professor, Division of Epidemiology and Associate Dean of Student Affairs, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota. Dr. Story is recognized for her research and numerous publications on the value of mealtime.

References: Click here.

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