Winfield Scott school receives health grant

FORT SCOTT, Kan. -- A USD 234 school has been awarded grant money toward the district's continued health and wellness initiative.

Winfield Scott Elementary School was recently chosen as the recipient of a $1,000 Healthy Habits for Life grant that is funded by the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas Foundation. The grant program is offered to help school nurses across the state address obesity and other childhood health and nutrition issues.

"We were thrilled," Robin Hartman, a registered nurse at the school, said. "It will make healthy snacks available for every classroom."

The Healthy Habits for Life program offered a total of $40,000 in grants to assist school nurses in promoting healthy lifestyle choices among students. The foundation works with representatives from the Kansas School Nurse Organization in selecting worthy recipients.

Specifics of the grant require staff and students to encourage and promote health and wellness around the entire school. These efforts include students regularly announcing healthy facts to the school through the intercom system, teachers reiterating healthy facts in the classroom, and nutrition facts being sent home in the monthly school newsletter.

"There is an educational piece coupled with the healthy snacks," Hartman said.

According to the foundation, school nurses have a unique opportunity to teach students about healthy habits through curriculum and programs that reach them at school where they spend much of their time. Students are targeted at a young age concerning health and wellness issues so they can be more easily influenced to develop lifelong healthy habits and behaviors.

The foundation's hope is that curbing childhood obesity now will translate into healthy adults later, saving health care dollars for all Kansas residents.

The health and wellness initiative at Winfield Scott is part of the USD 234 School Health Council's effort to continue encouraging exercise and healthy eating habits among staff and students in the district.

"It's a definite push," Hartman said. "We're striving to get education out there for preventative measures and long-term improved health ... We want to present it to them in very simple, doable terms."

Hartman said the grant program was made known to school nurses during a statewide school health conference that took place this summer in Wichita. To receive the grant, school officials had to fill out and submit a grant application that specified the reasons the school was seeking the grant. A detailed budget showing how the requested funds would be spent was required as well.

Grant funds cannot be used for salary or wages of any staff member or employee; all funds must directly benefit the needs of the program. Funds can be used for programs administered during the 2009-'10 school year, according to the foundation.

Winfield Scott received the recent grant just a week after USD 234 received a $6,930 grant from Kansas Coordinated School Health that will be used for district health and wellness programs this year. Funds will be used to purchase equipment for physical education programs in district schools, and programs on tobacco prevention education, nutrition education, and staff wellness.

KCSH focuses on increasing physical activity, improving nutrition and decreasing tobacco use in schools and school districts. The group brings school personnel, parents, community members and resources together to develop policies and programs that focus on these issues. The grant program is designed to assist schools and school districts to make progress toward exemplary wellness policies.