Changing the Scene
USDA/UNH Cooperative Extension program helps New Hampshire schools improve student nutrition and fitness

Robin Abodeely, the school nurse for the 425-student Dr. Crisp Elementary School in Nashua, strolls into a first-grade classroom on “snack patrol.”

“Anybody have a healthy snack to show me today?” she asks. The hands shoot up.

“I brought grapes today!”

“I have a banana!”

“I have an apple!”

Since signing up for Changing the Scene, a USDA school nutrition program, offered to N.H. schools in an enhanced format through UNH Cooperative Extension, Abodeely evaluated her school’s nutrition and fitness habits and spearheaded formation of  a school wellness team, which has since instituted an impressive variety of changes, including:

• Setting up a “Super Snackers” bulletin board with photos of students “caught” eating nutritious food
• Offering nutrition information in the school’s monthly newsletter
• Sending a healthy snacks suggestion list home to parents
• Hosting a full-scale farmers’ market of locally grown foods during a school open house
• Holding a PTO Family Fun Night, complete with jumping rope, salsa dancing, obstacle courses and healthy snacks
• Developing a 20-minute before-school walking program for students, faculty, and parents

Nation/statewide obesity epidemic affects children
“Obesity has reached epidemic levels in the nation and in New Hampshire, rivaling smoking as the number one public health threat,” says UNH Extension nutrition specialist, Valerie Long. “Studies have documented dramatic increases in childhood obesity in recent decades, raising concerns that today’s overweight kids will develop serious chronic illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease and some cancers at an early age, burdening a health care system already stressed to the breaking point.”

Long cites these statistics:

• The latest Kids Count survey estimates 27 percent of New Hampshire children are overweight or obese.
• Public health authorities estimate that 36 percent of children born in the U.S. in 2000 will develop diabetes in their lifetime.
• Sixty percent of overweight five- to 10 year-olds already have at least one risk factor for heart disease and 25 percent have two or more risk factors.
• Annual health costs directly associated with overweight and obesity among U.S. children more than tripled in the past two decades.

UNH Cooperative Extension steps in
“Getting to the root of a problem is what UNH Cooperative Extension does best, and when Extension nutrition educators wanted to begin improving the health of children in the state of New Hampshire, that’s just what we did,” says Extension nutrition specialist, Valerie Long.
“USDA had already developed a terrific program called Changing the Scene: Improving the School Nutrition Environment, with a toolkit of resources for local action. Since most children spend a large portion of their day at school, schools are a natural setting within which to influence the health and well-being of children and their families.

“We decided to target school nurses, because parents and community leaders respect nurses as child health advocates.” Says Long, “Collectively, they have the ability to reach large numbers of children. Nurses have knowledge in the areas of nutrition and exercise. They know a lot about the kids and the families of the kids in their schools.”

In early 2003 Long hired Martha Judson, a recently retired school nurse and past president of the NH School Nurses Association, to coordinate the program.

“I posted a note to the N.H. School Nurses’ Association listserv that we’d work with any school—at no cost to them,” says Judson. “I contacted a few schools I thought would have an interest, and then I hit the road, talking up the program one school at a time. Our timing was right. The data on the extent of childhood obesity had just begun making front page headlines.

“Most people call me to their schools because they know they have to do something,” Judson says. “Beginning in the 2006-2007 school year, the federal Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act will require all schools to form wellness teams and develop policy guidelines that promote student health through nutrition education, physical activity, and other school-based wellness activities.

“Our UNH Extension version of Changing the Scene gives schools the help they need to jumpstart the process.”

Changing the Scene: benefits to schools
“The program delivers a lot of value,” says Judson. “In exchange for a commitment of a minimum of 30 hours a year working on the project, Changing the Scene offers participants:

• a tool for assessing their own nutrition and exercise programs
• guidelines for identifying, contacting, and working with all of the groups who need to be actively involved with the school wellness team
• a rich assortment of resources and teaching materials
• ongoing support they need to develop and implement plans for change tailored to their schools’ specific needs and constraints.
• training conferences throughout the year
• one-on-one mentoring and individual meetings with school nurses and wellness teams to keep them up-to-date on the latest nutrition and physical activity information
• tips for attracting media attention and working effectively with the media
• one-on-one mentoring and coaching
• an email listserv
• access to a dedicated Web site for group discussion and sharing resources
• newsletters schools can send home to parents, with a blank page the schools can use to promote their own programs

 
Schools large and small, north and south
To date, Judson says, more then 350 school personnel from 118 schools the length and breadth of New Hampshire have signed on with the Changing the Scene program since its inception in 2003. “About three-quarters of the schools involved have made some changes, and many have made significant change to improve their school nutrition and fitness environments,” she says.

For her part, Abodeely says, “I used the Changing the Scene assessment tool, which revealed that our school was actually pushing junk food. With the best of intent—parents and teachers just want kids to be happy—we had birthday parties with cupcakes and sodas, pizza parties with cakes for dessert, a 100th-Day-of-School party, which featured a mix of  a hundred different pieces of candy.”

“In April, 2004, we had our first wellness committee meeting: The team decided to be proactive, to educate rather than punish, and to promote wellbeing, good nutrition and exercise.

“We kicked off our 2004 school year open house with a farmers’ market in the school cafeteria, organized by Awilda Muniz of UNH Cooperative Extension’s Nutrition Connections program. Local farmers sold corn and apples under a big tent. It was a huge hit.”

“We’ve put up posters everywhere, and filled our classrooms with nutrition and fitness books and supplies.”

Abodeely says having support at the top really helped ensure the program got off on solid footing. “Our school principal at the time, Jennifer Seusing, whose office was decorated with M&M dispensers, said, ‘If we’re going to be a healthy school, then I have to set a healthy example.’ She hired a personal trainer, joined Weight Watchers, and lost 85 pounds.”

Warren Elementary
In some New Hampshire schools, the administrators themselves sign on with the program. Rose Darrow, principal at the 82-pupil, K-6 Warren Elementary School, enrolled her school in 2004.
 
“We do a lot of research-based activities at this school. We’re always doing research,” she says. “When Martha [Judson] contacted us two years ago offering a researched-based program, we jumped at the chance. We already realized child obesity was an up-and-coming problem.”

Darrow says a lot has changed at Warren Elementary in two years. “We serve only fruit for dessert most days now, and we’ve switched to mostly [whole] wheat bread. We’ve become peanut-free. Our cooks have interested in nutrition. They’ve done taste tests of different cheeses and vegetables and taken periodic surveys to see what the children like and don’t like.

“We learned the children wanted more salads in their lunches, so we’ve begun serving more salads,” says Darrow. “They also wanted to go back to white bread; we didn’t go along with that.
We still have soda in the vending machines, but I’m happy to say that water is our biggest seller. It’s a fine balance: We really want change, but we want the change to feel positive.”

Darrow says, “Our fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-graders are ‘walking across New Hampshire,’ out in the school yard. The school bought pedometers for every child in the program—they love their gadgets! The little ones aren’t officially enrolled in the program, but they follow along anyway.”

“Another change we’ve made: Teachers eat their own lunches in the cafeteria, modeling good eating behavior. The children see them taking their time eating and enjoying their food.

Darrow summarizes her school’s experience with the Changing the Scene program this way: “Overall, we’re more thoughtful than we used to be. That’s what it’s all about.”

Other UNH Cooperative Extension health promotion outreach programs

Liveable, Walkable Communities Explore the vital role community design and development play in citizen health and well-being, including obesity prevention.

4-H Get up and Go Part of a larger statewide initiative, Walk New Hampshire (Walk NH), 4-H Get Up and Go encourages parents and other adults to lace up their walking shoes and join their kids in a walk across New Hampshire.


Nutrition Connections Nutrition and fitness education and support for income-eligible residents. Focuses on dietary quality, food resource management, shopping behavior, food safety, food security, and importance of physical activity.


Matt’s story The story of how one family found help for a health problem from an Extension Nutrition Connections educator to solve individual helped nutrition outreach

Physical activity equipment, school breakfast programs, and school nutrition programs needs assessment Report to the HNH foundation of a statewide survey intended to help the foundation better direct grant money to elementary schools most in need.

by Peg Boyles, UNH Cooperative Extension writer/editor; map by Shirley Clark, MerrimackCounty Family & Consumer Resources/ Nutrition Connections administrative assistant.

For more information:

• To learn more about UNH Cooperative Extension’s Changing the Scene program, email Martha Judson.
  
• USDA Team Nutrition’s Changing the Scene Program (national program)
• Making It Happen! School Nutrition Success Stories