Hi Friends!
Earlier this week, I got the chance to go to the 2013 Nutrition + Physical Activity Learning Connection Ohio Summit (for free). I was invited by the American Dairy Association Mideast to attend and live tweet the event. The event itself was presented by Ohio Action for Healthy Kids, in partnership with the American Dairy Association Mideast, Children’s Hunger Alliance and the American Academy of Pediatrics, with support from the Cardinal Health Foundation.
There were about 200 people there, from a wide variety of backgrounds. My preceptor from my internship rotation at Children’s Hunger Alliance was there, as well as my food service preceptor from one of the local school districts. There were educators, health professionals, RDs and many others from around the state of Ohio.
The opening speech was giving by the First Lady of Ohio, Karen Kasich. Prior to this event, I didn’t know much about her…but I was impressed with how active she is in the area of child nutrition and wellness. She worked with a team of people from Nationwide Children’s Hospital to develop a very cool series of videos called Time for 10! The basic idea is this:
“Time For 10! is a series of five, ten-minute exercise videos designed for daily use in K-5 classrooms. The program seeks to make guided exercise easy and accessible to Ohio schools, thereby improving students’ health and classroom productivity. It is a simple tool for schools to increase students’ physical activity through small increments of exercise, in a way that is manageable and constructive—providing benefits inside and outside the classroom.”
I LOVE the idea behind these videos and was thrilled to hear they’re being used in Ohio classrooms.
Throughout the morning, we heard from a variety of speakers on topics that included:
- Food Insecurity & Learning: Improving academic potential with school breakfast
- School Meals & Cognition: The Healthy Hunger-free Kids Act
- Physical Activity, Fitness & Learning: A review of research connecting physical education and physical activity to academic achievement
- The Crucial Role of Recess in Schools: The role it plays in helping children with creative expression and socio-emotional engagement
Here are some of the things I tweeted, along with Sally from Real Mom Nutrition who was also helping live-tweet the event:
The basis of the event:
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A call to Action:
- Today’s children are overweight, undernourished and unfit.
- You can affect cognition with nutrition, activity and fitness.
- Experiences alter brain structure & function. health, physical activity & nutrition affect cognitive processing.
- We can’t change genetics or home stress but we can help boost kids’ brain function with good nutrition + physical activity.
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On Food Insecurity & Learning and the Importance of Breakfast
- Hungry kids are more often sick, hospitalized and have impaired brain development.
- Schools are well positioned to be hubs to provide healthy food to kids by maximizing federal programs.
- 3 in 5 teachers across the country believe hunger inhibits the ability of their students to learn.
- Kids who eat school breakfast have better test scores, attend class more and are more likely to graduate from high school.
- “School breakfast can change lives” for kids with food insecurity at home.
- School breakfast = success. It reduces food insecurity and hunger and improves outcomes.
- Do schools in your area offer breakfast: Search http://www.nokidhungry.org/breakfast to find out or add your school!
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On the importance of recess:
- Looking at brain scans of kids sitting vs after a 20 min walk- physical activity stimulates cognitive activity!!
- Schools should: Increase PE time and/or improve quality, provide regular recess, incorporate mvmt into the classroom!
- Children need free play to support cognitive growth.
- “Children develop intellectual constructs & cognitive understanding through interactive, manipulative experiences”
- “Optimal cognitive processing in children necessitates a period of interruption from cognitive processing” (ie recess!)
- “Play as a child sees it is the most serious thing in life.Play builds the child & is thus an essential part of education”
- “Recess is a life skills class”. “Recess is a right, not an option”. Let’s protect it!
- Research shows that recess before lunch cuts food waste, improves behav during meal time AND in the classroom.
- Often when taking away recess as punishment, we’re taking it away from kids who need it most.
We had “recess” before lunch. A 10 minute physical activity break lead by Dr. Greg Bellisari, a former Ohio State and NFL football player.
While we ate, we observed a kids taste testing panel. A few kids were given several healthier lunch options to try and then they gave us their opinion. Overall, they seem to enjoy everything they tried, including things like low sodium brown rice with black beans and unbreaded chicken nuggets!
During the afternoon we heard a session about overcoming non-academic barriers to school improvement plans. We also heard from a panel of people who discussed things like creating classrooms that move, smarter lunchrooms and creating a wellness culture.
A few afternoon tweets:
- Want change? Find ways to make your health improvement ideas fit into the school improvement plans that already exist.
- Ohio is 1 of only 2 states that doesn’t have health education standards. To help change that visit: http://www.setthestandards.wordpress.com
- Smarter Lunchroom Movement grants help manage portion sizes, improve visability of healthy foods and enhance taste.
- “Smarter Lunchroom Movement: Lunchrooms are hands-on learning labs for creating healthy habits!”
- When it comes to children, look 20-30 years down the road. Teach them skills that will serve them now AND then.
- Get everyone involved! Kids teaching kids is just as,if not more, powerful than adults teaching kids about healthy choices
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Overall it was a great event. My favorite part was definitely the discussion about the benefits of recess. I’m such a huge proponent of recess and it was so interesting to hear about all the research that backs up the benefits of it.
Thanks again to American Dairy Association Mideast for inviting me to the event!
Enjoy!
–Lindsay–
I attended this event for free and was compensated for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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Mary says
This is really interesting to read. Especially as a teacher myself. I am always amazed how many of my form group come into school eating bags of crisps for breakfast and are glugging bottles of sports drinks by breaktime for a day at a desk! A friend has a four year old daughter who attends ballet at the weekend. She was also amazed at how many of the four year olds were drinking large bottles of sports drinks during their class!
Lindsay says
that’s never good!
Rachel @ Undercover Diva: A Sitcom says
I was seeing your tweets on Twitter and was interested in knowing more, so I’m glad you shared! This is really interesting. I did a search of schools who serve breakfast in my area and ALL of the schools that popped up had question marks next to them asking if I knew if they served breakfast. Very interesting.
Victoria @ Reluctantly Skinny says
It’s really nice to hear that so many people are starting to care more about the importance of physical activity and healthy eating. I remember recess becoming shorter and shorter in elementary school because of extra help, homework demands, time in the library…those are important but so is fostering a healthy, active child. I think people tend to overlook that a little too often!
Lindsay says
couldn’t agree more!
Katie @ Talk Less, Say More says
What a cool opportunity – it sounds really interesting! Since going to (and now working for!) my chiropractor, I’ve had the opportunity to take an even deeper look at the way we treat our bodies, through food, fitness, medications, products we use, etc. It blows my mind. Because of something as simple as getting children ACTIVE to help spark their learning, we’re working on a program for the fall to help them. It’s really cool to see how everything is connected!
Lindsay says
that’s awesome!!
Tami Grandi says
What an amazing opportunity! I have bookmarked this post so I can come back and check it out more!
Emily @SinfulNutrition says
Thank you for posting this Lindsay! I am completing a week elective rotation as part of my dietetic internship (although I’m technically not an intern anymore) with the Southeast Dairy council next week. I am planning on pursuing a career with the New England Food and Dairy council once I return to NH, and I hope that there is an opportunity similar to this summit in the Northeast. This looks like a great opportunity, and I am 100% an advocate for child nutrition and disease prevention, so thanks for all the info!
Lindsay says
just read your post! i hope you have a great rotation!
Alyssa @ Road to RD says
I just wrote a paper on the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act, to increase the nutrition standards of the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast program. Very important for children’s health!
Lindsay says
yes it is!!
Tiffany @ Sweet Potato & Spice says
What is the keyboard you have for your iPad? Is it part of a case or just a detachable keyboard?
Lindsay says
it’s a case that has a keyboard. it’s made by zagg and i love it!
Kristen O'Connor says
I was there too!! I did some work for Action for Healthy Kids right after college. Such a great conference! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Lindsay says
that’s so funny you were there! I didn’t know you were in columbus!! we need to meetup sometime!
Jody - Fit at 55 says
I love this & have to read more in depth later BUT wow! Great for you! Again, I tweeted manually & not sure why this particular plugin for tweeting is not working on any of the blogs. 🙁
Casey says
sounds like a really interesting event, glad you got to attend 🙂
Danica @ It's Progression says
This topic just gets me all fired up….I see my preschoolers eating JUNK every single day and it makes my heart just break…I so wish parents knew more about the importance of eating wholesome, real foods and the importance of movement for their kids!! (and for themselves!)
Nutmeg Nanny says
This is so interesting! Glad to hear awareness is spreading.