Giving their healthy best: Local schools get 'golden' results

PAWTUCKET - This was no "B is for Banana" kind of program.

When students come up with acronyms featuring statements like "some deli meats have sodium," say local school officials, that's when you know something special is going on.

Teachers and students from two Pawtucket schools are basking in the glow of victory this week after becoming the only two schools in the state yet to receive the U.S. Department of Agriculture's highest school nutrition award.

"Gold of Distinction" certification goes to Curvin-McCabe Elementary School and Cunningham Elementary School, two schools of just 600 across the country to receive such an award out of the 66,000 eligible to apply, according to officials from the USDA, who spoke during a celebration program at Curvin-McCabe last Thursday.

Gold is a difficult level to achieve, say school food service coordinators, because it not only requires more labor intensive work to create a healthier menu, but the meals on that menu must be accepted by 70 percent of students or more to be deemed a success.

Not only must the meals be healthy, the kids must think they taste good, too.

"You are the first schools in Rhode Island to be recognized by the USDA for your healthy programs," said Becky Bessette, coordinator of nutrition programs with the Rhode Island Department of Education. "I think a number of Rhode Island schools will follow your example."

Representatives from the USDA called local students and those who support their efforts the "vanguard" leading the way to healthier schools in America and said that schools like theirs will ultimately see healthier students and a drop in childhood obesity if they continue in this direction.

Griffith told The Breeze Monday that former Curvin-McCabe Principal Rose Mary Fazio was the one who filed the initial application three years ago with nurse Linda Lomax to become a gold certified school. Griffith recognized a number of people for their efforts to create healthier schools, including Superintendent Hans Dellitha and members of the food service program.

"It's really a holistic work, a collaborative effort on everyone's part," said Griffith, who credited food service personnel with presenting information to the district and incorporating a healthier menu, faculty and staff for embracing the concept, and teachers for incorporating nutrition education in the classes and promoting healthy living through their activities.

Audrey Rowe, deputy administrator for special nutrition programs with the USDA, told Pawtucket students that their dramatic and musical performances celebrating their healthy win last week were part of a program better than any she's seen in the hundreds of schools she's visited across the country as she's promoted President Barack Obama's Healthier U.S. Schools Challenge.

"This is absolutely the best program I've seen," said Rowe, who received thunderous applause from students in the gym of the Curvin-McCabe School.

Awards may have officially gone to the new principals of Curvin-McCabe, Janet Griffith, and Cunningham Elementary Principal Darrell Luffbourough, said officials in attendance at an awards ceremony and luncheon last week, but it was the students who embraced a healthier food program that incorporates better eating with increased activity and enhanced health education.

"You didn't go for bronze or silver, you went straight to the top and that's what's so important," Rowe told students. "You got there because of a lot of hard work."

Judging by the excitement expressed when the announcement came that it was almost time for a lunch that included hefty portions of fruits and vegetables, these students truly appear to have embraced a healthier style of eating.

Schools like Pawtucket's are put to the test on a variety of criteria when being considered for HealthierUS School Challenge certification through the USDA. School food service programs like Pawtucket's Sodexo are held to strict standards on what type of ingredients they can use, following requirements for a certain number of fresh fruits and vegetables, among others.

Schools must:

* Be enrolled as a Team Nutrition School;

* Offer reimbursable lunches that demonstrate healthy menu planning practices and principles and meet USDA nutrition standards;

* Provide nutrition education to students;

* Provide students with physical education and the opportunity for physical activity;

* Maintain an average daily participation of school enrollment for the lunches of at least 70 percent for "Gold" schools;

* And adhere to guidelines established by the Food and Nutrion Service for foods served or sold in schools outside the National School Lunch Program.

Solange Morrissette, Sodexo's general manager of school services for Pawtucket, Newport, and Jamestown, told The Breeze that gold certification is a "very, very difficult" achievement.

"It took us three years to win that award," said Morrissette. "The biggest challenge was the menu requirements which now are the same as the new Rhode Island Requirements."

For example, said Morrissette, a food service provider must "menu" a certain number of fresh vegetables each week and a certain number of those have to be green leafy vegetables.

"The first time we applied we put entree salads made with Romaine lettuce on the menu," said Morrissette. "Since it was an entree and thereby not out for all students to choose, it did not qualify as a serving."

As a result Pawtucket was disqualified, said Morrissette, meaning school officials had to go through the entire application process again. An application must be approved by the State Department of Education first, then the USDA office in Boston, then by the USDA in Washington D.C., said Morrissette.