Learn how to establish a Healthy School Team as a strategy to improve school wellness. 

A Healthy School Team is a school-level committee within a district or organization that has multiple schools. The Healthy School Team focuses on the needs of the students, staff and community partners at a specific school and helps ensure the successful implementation of the district-wide  Local School Wellness Policy.

The Healthy School Team concept is recognized by the federal government and national organizations as a strategy to improve school wellness. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s proposed rule on Local School Wellness Policy Implementation under the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, encouraged both local educational agency (LEA) level and school-level local school wellness teams to strengthen implementation and monitoring of wellness policies. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lists establishing infrastructure within school districts and school levels as a key strategy to implement coordinated school health initiatives. The Alliance for a Healthier Generation’s prestigious annual recognition program is only available to school-level teams that apply for recognition in up to nine topic areas including one that honors individual schools that implement the district’s wellness policy using a coordinated, goal-oriented approach.

How to Establish a Healthy School Team

The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) recommends the following action steps for schools working to establish a Healthy School Team:

• Provide information to stakeholders on the concept and need for a Healthy School Team.
• Invite stakeholders such as parents, students, school food service representatives, school administrators, school health professionals, physical education teachers and the public to participate in the Healthy School Team.
• Schedule a kickoff meeting of the Healthy School Team and establish a plan to conduct routine meetings to monitor the school wellness program.
• Establish the Healthy School Team as a resource in each school to promote wellness and create school-based goals that support healthy activities. We recommend that the Healthy School Team develop and schedule training and other activities to address wellness needs within the school.
• Develop a process to monitor competitive food* on the school campus and report the school’s compliance to the district-level wellness committee. If the school grants exemption days from the competitive food requirements for fundraising purposes, the Healthy School Team may be tasked with maintaining a calendar to ensure the state-required limits are observed (Rule 5P-2.002, Florida Administrative Code).
• The Healthy School Team may also consider conducting an annual self-evaluation using a reliable comprehensive tool such as the CDC’s School Health Index (SHI) to evaluate the school’s progress in implementing the district’s Local School Wellness Policy and establish school-based wellness goals for the following year.

*Competitive foods are those that are sold to students on the school campus during the school day and outside of the federally reimbursable meal programs.