• This can be a newly created team, an existing team such as a School Health Council, or a new subcommittee of your school's management council, sex education advisory committee, or staff wellness committee. Choose people whom you think represent your school and community. It is strongly recommended that your team include an administrator, a physical education teacher, a health education teacher, your school nurse or other health services provider, a parent, a school food service manager or director, and a school counselor, psychologist or social worker.
• Other key people on your team may include: coach or athletic director, classroom teacher, community-based health care provider, MSU Extension staff member, member of the parent/teacher organization, high school student, and/or representative from a community health organization such as the American Heart Association, the Cancer Society or the local health department.

• The Healthy School Action Tool (HSAT) was developed to help Coordinated School Health Teams assess whether their school environment offers consistent messages about the importance of healthy eating, physical activity and a tobacco-free lifestyle AND opportunities for students to make healthy choices.
• The HSAT consists of eight separate modules; each corresponds to one of the components of a Coordinated School Health Program, and all follow a similar format. There are one to four pages of questions for your team to answer about the module topic; responses result in points. Next, the provided scorecard enables your school to compare itself to the totals possible. Your team also may note school strengths and list recommended actions to improve your school health environment AND to consider the feasibility of each action, considering factors such as cost, time, support and importance.

• One-time events raise awareness and can be good marketing tools. But events and activities that promote policy and environmental changes are even better. Policy and environmental changes have a much greater impact than one-time events, and increase a school's ability to reach a large number of students and staff to sustain positive changes over time focused on healthy eating, physical activity and tobacco-free lifestyles.

 

Characteristics of One-Time Events	Characteristics of Policy/ Environmental Change
Unique: Usually don't result in behavior change	Repeated, Ongoing: Promote behavior change over time
Individual	Policy level
Not part of an ongoing plan	Part of an ongoing plan
Short in duration	Long term
Non-sustaining	Sustaining
Example of One-Time Events	Examples of Policy and Environmental Change
Celebrating 5 A Day Week	Adding fruits and vegetables to a la carte options
Hosting a Family Fitness Night	Making the school athletic facilities available to community members
Providing health screenings for school staff	Establish a building-sponsored wellness team
Participate in Walk to School Day	Establishing a Safe Routes to School Program
Providing healthy snacks or breakfast during MEAP testing	Adopting Michigan's Healthy Food & Beverage Policy
Participate in Kick Butts Day	Establish a tobacco-free school taskforce

• Michigan Action For Healthy Kids is a statewide coalition whose mission is to engage schools in earnestly providing a healthy environment where children learn and participate in positive dietary and lifestyle behaviors and practices. The Coalition has chosen two goals to pursue:
  1. Ensure that healthy snacks and food are provided in vending machines, school stores and other venues within the school's control.
  2. Provide all children, from pre-kindergarten through grade 12, with quality daily physical education that helps develop the knowledge, attitudes, skills, behaviors and confidence needed to be physically active for life.
• The coalition is currently implementing several tactics to achieve these goals in Michigan. Policies on Quality Physical Education and Offering Healthy Food and Beverages were developed and then adopted by the Michigan State Board of Education.
• To join Michigan's Coalition go to www.actionforhealthykids.org and click on Michigan under "State Teams." After registering you will receive information in the mail about upcoming meetings.
• Michigan Team Nutrition is a national USDA initiative designed to motivate, encourage, and empower schools, families and the community to work together to continually improve school meals and to make food and physical activity choices for a healthy lifestyle.
• Enrolled Michigan Team Nutrition schools can apply for grants, learn about the nutrition/literacy link, and receive free resources. More than 800 schools are enrolled in Michigan Team Nutrition. Sign up to be a Michigan Team Nutrition School by visiting www.tn.fcs.msue.msu.edu and selecting "How Your School Can Join."