PORTLAND, Ore., Oct. 7, 2004 - Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman today launched the HealthierUS School Challenge to help encourage schools and parents to continue promoting healthy lifestyles for children.

During a kickoff event in Portland at William Walker Elementary School for National School Lunch Week Oct. 10-16, Veneman said the Challenge's goal is to help children develop lifelong healthy eating and physical activity habits.

"Across the country, schools, families and communities are working to fight childhood obesity. They are finding new and exciting ways to encourage healthy eating habits and physical activity," said Veneman. "The HealthierUS School Challenge provides an exciting new incentive for schools to take increasingly bold steps to address the problems of childhood overweight and obesity."

The School Challenge is an extension of President Bush's Healthier US initiative that encourages all Americans to eat a nutritious diet and become physically active each day. The HealthierUS School Challenge is designed to build upon USDA's Team Nutrition program, which provides schools with nutrition education materials for children and families; technical assistance materials for school food service directors, managers and staff; and materials to build school and community support for healthy eating and physical activity. In addition, the Challenge builds on USDA's push to improve the nutritional quality of school meals through the School Meals Initiative that sets nutrition requirements for federally-reimbursed school meals.

The HealthierUS School Challenge will recognize schools that achieve the goal of meeting voluntary nutrition and physical activity standards established by the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service at Gold and Silver levels of accomplishment.

"Developing lifelong healthy eating and physical activity habits is a priority for this Administration," said Veneman. "The HealthierUS School Challenge will motivate schools to work even harder and smarter with students, parents and the community to achieve a longer and better life for our children."

In order to be certified as part of the Healthier U.S. School Challenge, schools must enroll in Team Nutrition and then meet even higher standards than those required by the federal government. There are two levels of achievement.

To be certified as Silver, schools must:

• Serve National School Lunch Program meals that are verified to meet nutritional standards;
• Offer nutritional education;
• Maintain National School Lunch participation above the national average;
• Offer physical activity for students;

For schools to go for the Gold, they must do all of the Silver level, plus:

• Serve or sell no food or drink during the day other than school meals or meet healthy standards for all foods offered anywhere in the school at any time of day.
• And offer school lunches every day that includes a fresh fruit or raw vegetable, a whole grain product and low- or non-fat milk.

Participation in Team Nutrition has been remarkable already. So far, more than 28,000 schools have signed on to be Team Nutrition schools, including William Walker Elementary. The Healthier U.S. School Challenge will give guidance and encouragement for those schools to do even more. Over the next two years, 100,000 schools participating in the National School Lunch Program will have the opportunity to accept the School Challenge. For this first year, elementary schools will be eligible. Next year, middle and high schools will be offered the opportunity to participate.

USDA provides many nutrition initiatives and education materials to help schools meet the Challenge including:

Fruits and Vegetable program:

• This $9 million dollar program provides fresh fruits and vegetables to children as snacks during the schools day in selected schools in eight states (Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington) and three Indian Tribal Organizations (Zuni Pueblo, N.M.; Oglala Sioux Tribe of the Pine Ridge Reservation, S.D.; and, the Inter-Tribal Council of Arizona). The program, popular with students and administrators, has been shown to improve student eating habits and raise student preference for and awareness of a variety of fruits and vegetables.

Eat Smart. Play Hard.TM Campaign:

• This cross-program initiative uses a spokescharacter, Power PantherTM, as the primary communication tool to deliver nutrition and physical activity messages to children and their caregivers. Basic themes focus on breakfast, balancing food intake and exercise, snacks and physical activity. Power Pantherä has appeared at over 250 health, nutrition or educational events in 31 states.

Team Nutrition Grants:

• Since 2001, over $16 million in Team Nutrition training grants have been provided states, including $3.96 million in 2004 to 21 states, to deliver innovative behavior-focused nutrition education strategies for children and their caregivers the National School Lunch and the Child and Adult Care Food Programs. In addition, states can use the funds to provide training and technical assistance for child nutrition professionals, including improved techniques for preparing nutritious, appealing meals.

Team Nutrition Educational Materials

• Changing the Scene - Improving the School Nutrition Environment addresses the entire school nutrition environment. The kit includes a variety of tools for use at the local level to raise awareness and address school environment issues that influence students' eating and physical activity practices.
• Food Buying Guide for Child Nutrition Programs helps school food staff determine the contribution foods make toward the meal pattern requirements and helps them to purchase the right amount of food and serve reimbursable meals.
• The Power of Choice: Helping Youth Make Healthy Eating and Fitness Decisions--A Leader's Guide is a guide for after-school program leaders working with young adolescents including activity materials, recipes, Nutrition Facts cards, communication tips, a leader training video and a song for pre-teens.
• Fruits & Vegetables Galore: Helping Kids Eat More is a tool for school foodservice professionals packed with tips on planning, purchasing, protecting, preparing, presenting and promoting fruits and vegetables.
• Making It Happen: School Nutrition Success Stories tells the stories of schools--urban, suburban, rural, elementary, middle and high schools--that have successfully implemented innovative approaches to offer and sell more nutritious foods and beverages to students and staff.
• Team Nutrition-Getting It Started and Keeping It Going: A Guide for Team Nutrition Leaders focuses on the critical first steps in initiating and implementing Team Nutrition. It also provides how to's, ideas in action, resources and challenges and solutions identified by states and participating schools.

Further information about Team Nutrition and the HealthierUS School Challenge is available at http://www.fns.usda.gov/tn. Information about the President's HealthierUS Initiative can be found at http://www.whitehouse.gov.