Landels Revamps Policies to Encourage Healthy Eating

Things look a little different at these days.

School staff has started to modify its nutritional offering through a number of policies and practices to encourage healthy eating habits and physical activity in students and their families, according to Principal Carmen Mizell.

"What we’re doing is a partnership with and Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF), to really just promote healthy habits," Mizell said. “We’re very excited about it.”

The program is called "5-2-1-0." The "five" stands for the goal of eating five servings of fruit and vegetables a day. The "two" is the daily goal of only two hours or less of "screen time" each day—meaning, TV, video games, computers and the like. The "one" stands for one hour or more of physical activity each day, and the "zero" means, zero sugar drinks like soda, energy drinks or chocolate milk.

In order to stand behind those guidelines, the school is cutting back on serving some of the less healthy items and meals they used to feature on the cafeteria menu, like chocolate milk.

Currently, the school has slimmed down the number of days it offers chocolate milk in the cafeteria. It used to be sold every day—now, students only see it on the shelves twice per week. Eventually, Mizell says, they will stop serving it altogether.

"It’s hard—the kids really look forward to that chocolate milk," Mizell admitted. "But we really want to be modeling what we’re teaching."

Mizell said several healthy food options have also been added to the menu, such as hummus, garbanzo beans, sweet potatoes and more.

"It’s been really successful," she said.

In order to further practice what they preach, the Landels staff has started a "Healthy Heroes" program in which teachers who exemplify the guidelines behind "5-2-1-0" have their photo featured in a glass display case in the halls, along with a personal testimony as to how they implement "5-2-1-0" into their lives.

"They write something for each of the four numbers, such as, what are their favorite fruits and vegetables for the '5,' what they like to do each day for their physical activity for the '1' – basically, what they do for each one of the numbers, themselves," said Mizell.

The school has also distributed "5-2-1-0” journals to the students to track their daily habits and goals, and offers rewards for students who complete the journals and turn them in to their teachers.

"Each student who completes it and turns it in on time gets a bracelet," she said. "They’re similar to the 'LiveStrong' rubber bracelets."

Another successful part of Landel’s efforts are the Tuesday afternoon cooking classes students, which their parents can sign up to take together, called "Cooking Matters." The classes are offered through a partnership between PAMF and the local nonprofit Three Squares.

"The Cooking Matters program brings families together for both nutrition and cooking lessons each week for six weeks," Jeremy Loader, from PAMF’s Youth Nutrition program, said. "Rather than teaching parents to prepare meals with vegetables concealed in them, Cooking Matters teaches to involve children in the preparation, and highlights the vegetables.”

Ten families at a time can take the class held at Landels on Tuesdays from 3-5 p.m. The children and their parents are led in projects to cook healthy meals and snacks together.

Mizell said the program has been a big success for far, and families appear to be enjoying the class.

"Having the opportunity for parents and children to work together, it really helps introduce these healthy habits at an early age," she said.

For more information on the ‘5-2-1-0’ program, visit http://www.pamf.org/ynp/5210/ or call at 650-526-3520.