Healthy Schools Newsletter
From Hastings Prince Edward Public Health

March 2024

 In this Issue:

  1. Nutrition Month

  2. Try this! Homemade hummus

  3. School highlights

  4. Solar Eclipse

  5. Upcoming dates

  6. Stay tuned!

We invite you to encourage your colleagues to subscribe to this newsletter to receive up-to-date and timely information from HPEPH.

Nutrition Month

March is Nutrition Month: Building a healthier future

Nutrition Month is a great opportunity to help students build a healthier future by celebrating and exploring the many wonderful things about food! Nutrition is not just for the health and physical education curriculum; growing, cooking, tasting, and food systems can be incorporated into science, math, and many other subjects.
 

Food neutrality

A food neutral approach can reduce the risk of unintended harms when teaching and talking about food. Food neutrality means removing judgement from food, not categorizing food (“healthy” vs. ”unhealthy”) and recognizing the value of all foods.

Want to learn more about food neutrality? Presentations for school staff and parents/caregivers are available upon request. Contact your school nurse or health promoter or email healthyschools@hpeph.ca for more information.
 

A positive school food environment

All school staff can contribute to a positive school food environment by:

  • Using a food neutral approach and keeping messages about food positive.
  • Focusing on food offered at school and not commenting on what students eat.
  • Allowing students to decide whether and how much to eat and the order to eat in.
  • Creating opportunities for families to develop food skills and healthy behaviours, like eating together and cooking more often.
 


The Great Big Crunch

Crunch together and show your support for a national school food program by joining the Great Big Crunch (GBC)!

Get involved by:

  • Registering and hosting a GBC event any time in March.
  • Sharing pictures online with the hashtag #GreatBigCrunch.
 

For educators

 

For administators

 

Home, school and community partnership

Post on your school socials!

HPEPH has created nutrition and food-related social media messaging that you can cut, paste, and post as appropriate for your school community. Use one of the messages below or visit our Healthy Eating Newsletter and Social Media Messaging page for a full list.

  • DYK? Healthy eating is about more than food. How kids learn to eat is just as important. Model healthy eating habits and make eating fun and positive for kids. For more tips, visit: bit.ly/3QSPmcB
     
  • Family meals can happen any time. If your evenings are busy, try sharing breakfast or have brunch together on weekends. Check out these tips for making the most of family meals: bit.ly/2TNzvBy
     
  • DYK? Cooking is a life skill that can help your child succeed in the classroom. Help them practice math, science, and more by getting them in the kitchen. Ideas to get started: ow.ly/eEpI50QFVut
 

 

Looking to promote information to your school community on another topic? Visit our Newsletters and Social Media page for newsletters inserts, social media messages, and school announcements that be easily copied into your school promotional materials.

Try this!

Homemade hummus

This easy, no-cook recipe requires only a blender or food processor to make. Incorporate language by analyzing the recipe, math through measuring, and science by exploring the ingredient origins.

It’s important to let your students decide if they want to try the recipe and how much to eat. They can still learn about food by seeing and doing, even if they don’t taste it!

Serve with veggie sticks, pita, or tortilla triangles for a delicious lesson with a side of food literacy.

Visit hpePublicHealth.ca/homemade-hummus for the print-ready recipe.

Tag us! @hpepublichealth.

School highlights

Queen Elizabeth Public School in Belleville used the Healthy Schools process to foster healthy eating behaviours in the school community, with a focus on food skills, cooking confidence, and food exploration.

The Grade 4/5 and 5/6 classrooms participated in food literacy sessions where they explored the sensory properties of food, learned about food safety, and practiced food skills. Hands-on food preparation - including smoothies, fruit salsa, and pizzadillas - was the highlight of each session.

Students used their senses to explore mangoes, radishes, and beets.

The school also held a “Make and Take” pop-up event for families, which gave students and caregivers the opportunity to make their own bento boxes while building food skills and enjoying a variety of food together.

Solar eclipse

2024 solar eclipse

On April 8, 2024, the moon will pass between the Earth and the Sun, resulting in a total solar eclipse. The moon’s moving shadow will create a band of darkness, or path of totality, that travels over North America, including local areas such as Trenton, Belleville, and Prince Edward County.

While most Hastings Prince Edward schools will be on a PA Day on April 8, resources are available to help educators incorporate this rare celestial event into student learning and enable students to observe the eclipse safely.

 

For educators

  • Children should always be supervised during solar viewing activities.
 

For administators

  • Encourage students and their families to use safe, indirect methods of observing the eclipse, like pinhole projection or watching a live stream.
  • For schools not on a PA day April 8, daylight will be affected during school dismissal, be sure your school is prepared:
    • Know how you will handle additional pedestrian/traffic congestion.
    • Be aware that there will be limited supervision for children who walk, bus, or take public transit from school.

Upcoming dates
  • March 7: Virtual Great Big Crunch – See above for more information
  • March 11-15: March Break
  • March 22: World Water Day - Participate in the Great Gulp to raise awareness about drinking water and reducing single-use plastic bottles.

Stay tuned!

Stay tuned for our April newsletter, which will feature information, announcements, and resources for students, staff, and families about active transportation and safe school zones.

Back to Summary

Contact Information: 

For other questions about Healthy Schools: healthyschools@hpeph.ca 

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