RICHMOND – The Virginia Department of Education’s Office of School Nutrition Programs is partnering with the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth to publish the Governor’s Scorecard on Nutrition and Physical Activity for Virginia schools. The scorecard measures efforts that have gone beyond what is required to promote a culture of health and wellbeing through food quality, participation in school feeding programs, health and physical education classes, and physical activity.
“It has been a pleasure for me to launch the Governor’s Scorecard on Nutrition and Physical Activity to help schools in their mission to encourage healthier lives in children,” said First Lady Pamela Northam, National Best Practices, Benchmarking and Recognition by schools that go way beyond that to ensure that students have access to healthy food and plenty of time to exercise. “
Every third child in the United States is obese or overweight. Virginia currently ranks 34th in the nation for childhood obesity among 10–17 year olds and 28th in the nation for high school obesity. In Virginia, 30.6% of high school students are obese or overweight. The prevalence of obesity among high school students in Virginia is 14.8%, which is the national rate.
Childhood obesity can lead to serious, lifelong, and life-threatening health problems such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease, problems previously only seen in adults. Experts fear that due to the obesity epidemic, this could be the first generation of children to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents.
“Promoting the physical and emotional well-being of students is now widely recognized as a core mission of public schools in Virginia and across the country,” said James Lane, Superintendent of Public Instruction. “The new Governor’s Scorecard on Nutrition and Physical Activity will advance this mission by providing incentives for schools and school departments to exceed state and federal minimum requirements for providing nutritious meals year-round, and by encouraging students both in and out of the country The school day’s opportunities to promote physical activity maintain fitness and health. “
“The Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth welcomes the introduction of the Governor’s Scorecard. It is a great tool to encourage schools to empower youth to make healthy choices every day,” said VFHY Managing Director Marty Kilgore.
The Governor’s Scorecard – originally introduced in 2005 as part of the Healthy Virginians Initiative by Governor Mark Warner – replaces the Department of Agriculture’s Healthier US School Challenge, identifying best practices and recognizing schools that exceed minimum diet and physical activity requirements.
The updated version of the scorecard, released October 12, includes criteria designed to incentivize schools to make changes in teaching, policies, support services and practices necessary to make progress towards the goal of the state education committee to achieve equality of opportunity and results for all students.
The Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth’s current obesity prevention initiatives are aligned with and support the measures outlined in the Governor’s Scorecard. These include Rev Your Bev, a campaign run by its youth-led Y Street program, which works to improve access, availability, and promotion of water in Virginia’s schools, and existing best practices shared by its Healthy Community Action Teams grants are implemented.
“Healthy school meals are an essential part of education – they support academic success and the general well-being of students,” said Sandra Curwood, director of the VDOE school nutrition programs. “The governor’s scorecard helps benchmark best practices, identify growth opportunities, and recognize excellence.”
The Virginia Office of School Nutrition Programs endeavors to:
- Ensure every child in Virginia has equal access to healthy food options in child nutrition programs and nutritional education opportunities;
- Focus on the importance of school nutrition in improving health and supporting school performance; and
- Providing guidance, training and technical support to schools and departments.
