Chef Nights Promote Healthy Eating in Area Schools

Reporting: Monessa Guilfoil

The Hamilton County Department of Education in collaboration with Coordinated School Health offers Chef Night demonstrations and taste-testings for children and their families from four area schools:

Chef Night is an event where Local chefs will come to selected schools to demonstrate how to prepare healthy food.

This event will take place in the school cafeteria with Local Chef’s preparing healthy food. Multiple booths will be set-up with Healthy Education information and, a Dietitian.

Fun games, face painting, and door prizes give away will be available.

The Chef Nights at area schools are made possible by a grant from Gaining Ground, a Benwood Initiative:

The Benwood Foundation seeks to stimulate creative and innovative efforts to build and strengthen the Chattanooga community.

Coordinated School Health is providing the educational component for the Chef Nights collaboration:

“The mission of Coordinated School Health is to improve students’ health and their capacity to learn through the support of families, communities and schools.”

CSH Model:

The CDC’s Coordinated School Health (CSH) model is a systematic approach that ensures that a school community effectively links health with educational success. Although these components are listed separately, it is their composite that allows CSH to have significant impact. CSH is implemented in a way that fits the unique needs and resources of each school community. The eight components of CSH are:

• Health Education
• Health Services
• Counseling, Psychological and Social Services
• Physical Education
• Nutrition Services
• Student, Family/Community Involvement
• Healthy School Environment
• Health Promotion for Staff

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Coordinated School Health and School Nutrition Are Teaching Healthy Lifestyle Choices Beyond the Schoolyard

REPORTING:  RABBIT ZIELKE

The Center for Disease Control has developed a Coordinated School Health Program (CSHP) to encourage healthier lifestyles in the youth of America.  CSHP centers on 8 components which include health education, physical education, health services, nutrition services, counseling and psychological services, healthy school environment, healthy educators and staff, and community involvement.  In Hamilton County, integrating all of these components is the task of Russell Cliche and will depend on collaborations and partnerships within the school system and in the community

The Director of School Nutrition, Carolyn Childs, is working with Cliche to promote improved nutrition by incorporating more fresh fruits and vegetables into student diets.  Gaining Ground initiated by the Benwood Foundation is helping to fund this program which includes bringing fresh produce into the classroom and not just the cafeteria.  Students will get to sample fresh produce, learn about the nutritional impact of the food, and also learn how to bring this information home so they can continue to enjoy local fresh produce.

Bringing in the families is crucial to integrating these foods into the home environment.  The Coordinated School Health and School Nutrition offices will be hosting Chef Nights in certain schools across the county to demonstrate how to prepare and cook meals using fresh produce.  Information will also be provided specific to each school location on where to purchase these foods.

According to the Tennessee Department of Education, healthier students perform better academically and these programs are designed to improve student and school performance all across the state.

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Changes in Works for Hamilton County Schools

by Julie Steele

The school bell rings today for Hamilton County’s 42 thousand students attending 44 elementary schools, 20 middle schools and 15 high schools. What’s in store for Hamilton County students this year?  We asked Aaron Collier, contributing editor and education writer for Chattarati.com Collier covers schools in Hamilton County and education in the state of Tennessee. He is a former Hamilton County teacher. Yesterday Collier  discussed Hamilton County’s graduation rate and new programs implemented to address that dropping rate, as well as new state curriculum standards. Collier says lots of changes are in the works. For starters this year, for the first time ever,  50 teacher evaluations will be based  on student achievement.

Collier explains that though budget cuts haven’t affected the Hamilton County School system as much as it has some school systems  across the nation, budget cuts are affecting the school system.

He says a school building and consolidation is in the works with many of those changes  based on growth and some based on school buildings needing to be replaced.

According to Collier, there are a couple of very important things going on in education in Hamilton County right now. One of those is the Principal Leadership Academy. He says a program everyone will be keeping a close eye on    is the Urban Teacher Residency Program.

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