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Tribal Nutrition Lumpkin County School District School Nutrition Director, Peggy Ingram

USDA Guidelines

Celebrating LC’s first newsletter focused on nutrition and wellness! The goal of this newsletter is to better inform our students, faculty, parents and community about nutrition and wellness guidelines in our schools. Please feel free to email me at [email protected] for comments or questions.

Resources: Let’s Move!

Choose My Plate

www.letsmove.org Choosemyplate.gov Online website for Online website students to create a about the 5 meal planner, set components that nutrition and makeup the school fitness goals. plate.

LCMS KISS Kidsinsupershape.org Lumpkin County Middle School has a club that promotes fitness and nutrition.

Perhaps the most controversial topic in school nutrition has been the new nutrition standards that USDA rolled out last year for lunch. These guidelines require strict adherence to calories, fat, saturated fat, and trans fat. In addition, students are required to choose a minimum of three components and one of these must be a fruit or vegetable. Next year, sodium restrictions are to be implemented as well.

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Snack Plan! At school/home…provide students with simple and easy to carry snacks. Fresh fruits like apples, crackers, and string cheese are popular and kid friendly items. Portion control is especially

Fitness at Home Research shows that kids and adolescents should participate in 60 minutes of physical activity a day. Adults should participate in 30 minutes of activity a day.

Fitness and Learning For younger children, a simple game of hopscotch can be used to reinforce letter or number recognition. For older students, place addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division problems in the boxes. They must call out the correct answer before advancing to the next spot. For older students, a nature walk or nighttime walk can be an opportunity to reinforce environmental science skills. What is the name of the constellation in the north?

Breakfast…The Most Important Meal As a former educator, I have witnessed firsthand how students who skipped breakfast struggle to pay attention and focus. Even the best students are impaired when hunger overtakes their learning. A plethora of research has been linked to academic achievement and students who eat breakfast. Our cafeterias provide the nutrition needed to start the day off right. In addition, it is one less thing that parents need to worry about fixing in the morning.

Healthiest Food in The Grocery Store When shopping at grocery stores, the healthiest food can be found along the perimeter. Most items like produce, fresh cuts of meats, dairy products, such as milk, low-fat cheese, and yogurt, are located along this path. Limit the higher carbohydrate, sugar, and fat products found in the middle aisles. Also, don’t forget to check for local farmer markets to find seasonal fruits and vegetables grown locally.