New Orleans, LA Friday, August 10, 2012 – Building on the excitement of the summer
Olympics, FirstLine Schools (FLS) and its signature program, Edible Schoolyard
New Orleans (ESY NOLA), unveiled a new comprehensive school wellness initiative
as part of a network-wide professional development day on Wednesday, July 25,
2012.
"School
wellness is important to help our students live healthy and successful
lives. We also believe in supporting our
teachers and staff to model healthy choices and lifestyles, for the sake of
their own health and for the future of the young people in our care," said
FirstLine Schools CEO, Jay Altman.
ESY NOLA staff, led by Executive
Director Claudia Barker, provided background on the Comprehensive School
Wellness Initiative as well as the need to prioritize wellness in schools in
response to the current health crisis facing our students and the community at
large. Success stories from other
schools around the country that have taken on similar wellness initiatives were
shared and a visioning session, with participation of over 350 FLS employees,
allowed staff to brainstorm ideas to make their schools healthier.
Building on the excitement of the
day, the six key levers of the new FLS Comprehensive School Wellness Initiative
were unveiled: (1) Mindset, Policies,
Systems, & Assessments; (2) School Food: Nutrition, Access, &
Education; (3) Physical Safety; (4) Physical Fitness; (5) Mental &
Emotional Health; and (6) Risky Behavior Prevention.
Throughout the year, Health and Wellness Manager Chef
April Neujean (former lead Chef for ESY NOLA) will convene a network-wide
Wellness Council of students, parents, teachers and administrators to establish
school health standards across the FLS network.
Each FirstLine school will also develop its own active wellness
committee, to launch a variety of new wellness activities and adopt an updated network
wellness policy. This work builds upon a
strong foundation of ESY NOLA-led garden- and kitchen-based food education
programming and school food reform advocacy as well as FirstLine’s
long-standing commitment to nurture the whole child, while ensuring all of our students are on track to be
academically prepared for success in a college preparatory high school and
college.
As a FitNOLA
partner committed to helping Mayor Mitch Landrieu move New Orleans from No. 37
to one of the top 10 healthiest and physically active metro areas in the U.S.,
ESY NOLA is collaborating with FLS’s Physical Education Department on messaging
to students and parents the importance of eating well and moving more, while
providing examples of how this can be done through a variety of ESY NOLA
programming.
This new initiative has
been made possible by grants from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Louisiana
Public Health Institute’s School Health Connection, Up2Us/ Coaches Across
America, Alliance for a Healthier Generation, and Action for Healthy Kids
(through Walmart and Let’s Move!), and includes partnerships such as Tulane
School of Public Health, Tulane School of Culinary Medicine, and Junior League
of Greater New Orleans.
FirstLine Schools
The mission of FirstLine Schools is to create
and inspire great open enrollment public schools in New Orleans. FirstLine
currently operates Samuel J. Green Charter School, Arthur Ashe Charter School,
John Dibert Community School, Langston Hughes Academy, and Joseph S. Clark
Preparatory High School. For more information, please visit www.firstlineschools.org.
Edible Schoolyard NOLA
Edible Schoolyard NOLA is a comprehensive
seed to table food education program that aims to change the way children eat,
learn and live at (5) FirstLine public charter schools. The program offers
hands-on gardening and kitchen classes that are integrated into the curriculum,
culture, and cafeteria programs at the schools it serves. Founded in 2006, ESY
NOLA is in its sixth year of operation and serves 2,400 students in grades pre
K through 12th across the FirstLine Schools network. For more information, please
visit
www.esynola.org.
###
