Healthy School Teams

In 2014, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) published an amendment to Rule 5P-1.003, Florida Administrative Code, to synchronize Florida’s competitive food rules with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Smart Snacks in School. Competitive foods are those that are sold to students on the school campus during the school day and outside of the federally reimbursable meal programs.

The amended state rule also requires school districts to establish Healthy School Teams.

What Is a Healthy School Team?

A Healthy School Team is a resource in each school to help ensure the successful implementation of the school district's Local School Wellness Policy.

Responsibilities

Each Healthy School Team must:

• Monitor its school's compliance with competitive food rules,
• Maintain a calendar of exempted food fundraisers, and
• Report compliance with the district's Local School Wellness Policy.

How to Establish a Healthy School Team

FDACS recommends the following action steps for schools working to establish Healthy School Teams:

• Provide information to stakeholders on the requirement to establish a Healthy School Team.
• Invite each of the following stakeholders to participate in the Healthy School Team: parents, students, school food service representatives, school administrators, school health professionals, physical education teachers, and the public. If there are no volunteers from any of the stakeholder groups listed, the team can be established to begin fulfilling its responsibilities while also pursuing participation from those missing groups.
• Schedule a kickoff meeting of the Healthy School Team. We anticipate that Healthy School Teams will conduct routine meetings to monitor the school wellness program.
• Establish the Healthy School Team as a resource in each school to promote wellness and create school-based goals that support healthy activities. We recommend that the Healthy School Team develop and schedule training and other activities to address wellness needs within the school.
• Develop a process to monitor compliance with competitive food rules. We recommend, at a minimum, a review of food sales on the school campus.
• We also recommend that the Healthy School Team at each school conduct an annual self-evaluation using a reliable comprehensive tool such as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's School Health Index to evaluate the school’s progress in implementing the district’s Local School Wellness Policy and establish school-based wellness goals for the following year.