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Updated February 23, 2015.
School wellness committees can really make a difference! Through these committees (sometimes called wellness councils or wellness teams), dedicated parents, teachers, staff, and students help spread healthy messages. They want every member of the school community to know that fitness can be fun; that healthy foods can be delicious; and that wellness brings lifelong benefits.
If you're looking for inspiration for your committee, consider some of these ideas and events other groups have tried.
There are so many ways to promote the power—and fun!—of healthy living:
- Start or sponsor an after-school running club
- Host a healthy recipe contest, complete with tastings, prizes, and a cookbook of entries
- Create a healthy snack handout with unexpected, kid-friendly suggestions
- Organize a Walk-to-School Day event and/or a Bike-to-School Day observance
- Set up "walking school buses" for neighborhoods near the school
- Hold a discussion session about a topical book or movie
- Encourage teachers to celebrate holidays with physical activity
- Plan a family fitness event (or a whole series of them)
- Ask a dietitian (or students from a dietetics program at a local college) to teach cooking and nutrition classes for kids and adults
- Secure wellness-related gifts and prizes for school events
- Organize field trips to farmers' markets, athletic facilities, and parks
- Provide healthy snack samples for tasting at lunchtime, recess, or after school
- Create an incentive program to track and reward healthy behaviors (such as eating fruits and vegetables, limiting screen time, walking or biking to school, or trying new physical activities)
- Start a school garden
- Help celebrate the 100th Day of School with these 10 active ideas
- Raise funds for playground equipment—from jump ropes and soccer balls all the way up to new climbers and slides
- Share wellness information, recipes, and tips via a newsletter, website, or blog
- Organize a swap or community yard sale for gently used bicycles, ice skates, cleats, shin guards, snowshoes, and/or other sports and fitness gear
- Connect the school community with a local farm that offers CSA (community-supported agriculture) shares
- Plan an all-school kickball tournament
- Celebrate Girls and Women in Sports Day
- Provide teachers and staff with healthy meals during in-service days or parent-teacher conferences
- Hold a sports try-it event (similar to the musical instrument "petting zoos" held by your school's band and orchestra program)
- Survey families to find out what questions they have about fitness and nutrition, then brainstorm ways to answer them
- Create a lending library of cookbooks (maybe you can even include equipment, such as bread machines or slow cookers)
- Participate in a wellness-related community service effort, such as a shoe drive or a park clean-up
- Host a soup swap so everyone can stock their freezers with tasty, nutritious meals
Have more ideas or want to share what your school's wellness team has done? I'd love to add more to this list. Tweet, Facebook, or email me!
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