About Model Wellness Policies
On June 30, 2004, President Bush signed the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act into law. The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act encourages healthy environments that will address the childhood obesity epidemic. One of the requirements of this law is that every school district must create local wellness policies to implement healthy school environments, by the beginning of the 2006-2007 school year.
Quality resources for sample school wellness policies are available through:
- Action for Healthy Kids- has created a Wellness Policy Tool located on their website. This website can assist schools in the development of local wellness policies, as it contains a searchable database of policies, and an easy-to-use template. http://www.actionforhealthykids.org/resources.php
- Ohio Action for Healthy Kids also has information about developing wellness policies at http://www.childrenshungeralliance.org/AFHK
- Healthy School Meals Resources System, USDA - http://schoolmeals.nal.usda.gov
- Team Nutrition, USDA- provides tools to assist with implementation of school wellness policies. The website contains a great deal of information on Local Wellness Policies. Sample policies and reference materials are provided. http://www.fns.usda.gov/tn/Healthy/wellnesspolicy.html
- National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity – a comprehensive toolkit designed to provide guidance and sample policies to schools. This resource is available at http://www.schoolwellnesspolicies.org
- School Nutrition Association - formerly American School Food Service Association- has local wellness policy guidelines, seminars, sample policies, and other resources. http://www.asfsa.org/