School of St.

Peter

Wellness Policy
 Wellness Advisory Council

1. Food Service Director/Head Cook – Kathy Antony

2. School Nurse – Crystal Schmitt
3. Parent Representative – Lindsey Anderson
4. Staff Member Representative – Lindsey Anderson
5. School Principal – Lori Rangaard
[Note: All school districts that receive funding from the federal school lunch program are required by the Child
Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 (“the Act”) to have a Wellness Policy that includes nutrition
guidelines, goals for nutrition education, and physical activity to promote student wellness. The Act requires the
involvement of parents, students, representatives of the school food authority, the school board, school
administrators, and the public in the development of the wellness policy. The Act also requires a plan for
measuring implementation of the policy and the designation of at least one person charged with operational
responsibility for ensuring the school district is in compliance with the policy. The Act provides for technical
assistance and information from the Secretary of Agriculture to aid state and local educational agencies and
school food authorities in establishing healthy school nutrition environments, reducing childhood obesity, and
preventing diet-related chronic diseases.]

VISION STATEMENT
St. Peter Catholic School lays the foundation for the growth of each students’ spiritual, intellectual, moral, social, and
physical well-being to use their God given talents toward global citizenship. The message of Jesus will thrive in the
students, staff, faculty, and parish community.

MISSION STATEMENT
St. Peter Catholic School is committed to providing students opportunities to live out the Gospel of Jesus and gain courage
to act on their Catholic beliefs in community, worship, and service. Catholic teaching and values are integrated into all areas
of the curriculum to develop each child’s body, mind, and soul.
ST. PETER CATHOLIC SCHOOL PHILOSOPHY
St. Peter’s School believes that it is our duty as a Catholic school to educate the whole person—body, mind and soul. St.
Peter’s School is dedicated to providing a Christ-centered environment to instruct all areas of faith and academics. We
believe that our students will be prepared to live as responsible Christians in today’s world, while building on their Catholic
foundation and striving for the ultimate goal of eternal life with God.
 Student Nutrition & Physical Activity

Policy Intent/Rational:
St. Peter’s School promotes healthy schools, by supporting wellness, good nutrition, and regular physical
activity as part of the total learning environment. St. Peter’s supports a healthy environment where children
learn and participate in positive dietary and lifestyle practices. The school contributes to the basic health status
of children by facilitating learning through the support and promotion of good nutrition and physical activity.
Improved health optimizes student performance potential and ensures that every child has a better opportunity
to reach a higher level of achievement.
A. Provide a comprehensive learning environment for developing and practicing lifelong wellness behaviors.
The entire school environment, not just the classroom, shall be aligned with healthy school goals to
positively influence a student’s understanding, beliefs and habits as they relate to good nutrition and regular
physical activity. A healthy school environment should not be sacrificed because of a dependence on
revenue from high-added fat, high-added sugar, and low nutrient foods to support school programs.
Nutrition lessons are integrated into the curriculum and the health education program. St. Peter’s will also
provide nutrition education lessons that cover topics such as reading a Nutrition Facts label etc.
B. Support and promote proper dietary habits contributing to students’ health status and academic
performance.
All foods available on school grounds and at school-sponsored activities during the instructional day should
meet or exceed the district nutrition standards. Emphasis should be placed on foods that are nutrient dense
per calorie. To ensure high quality, nutritious meals, foods should be served with consideration toward
variety, appeal, taste, safety, and packaging.
C. Provide more opportunities for students to engage in physical activity.
A quality physical education program is an essential component for all students to learn about and participate
in physical activity. Physical activity is to be included in the school’s daily education program for grades K
through 6. Physical activity should include regular instructional physical education, as well as co-curricular
activities, and recess.
D. The school of St. Peter is committed to improve academic performance for all students.
Educators, administrators, parents, and all school support personnel must consider the critical role student
health plays in academic stamina and performance and adapt the school environment to ensure that students’
basic nourishment and activity needs are met. To ensure widespread understanding of the benefits to school
environments where nutritious foods are provided and where students have an opportunity for physical
activity, an awareness campaign that highlights research demonstrating the positive relationship between
good nutrition, physical activity, and capacity of students to develop and learn will be conducted on a regular
basis.
E. Establish and maintain a school-wide Wellness Advisory Council with the purposes of:
● Developing guidance to explicate this policy
● Monitoring the implementation of this policy
● Evaluating policy progress
● Serving as a resource to school personnel, (e.g. providing lists of healthy incentives, snacks, birthdays,
etc.)
● Revising policy as necessary
A school-wide Wellness Advisory Council will be established and maintained. The Council will meet a
minimum of one time annually with Council membership including, but not limited to:
● Food Service Director/Head Cook
● School Nurse
● A parent representative
● Staff member representative
● School Principal
The Wellness Advisory Council will be responsible for reviewing an Annual Report by September 15 of
each year that includes, but may not be limited to, the following information:
● Monthly school menus and meal counts
● Listing any sales of food throughout the school hours including vending machines, school stores,
culinary and special education programs, in-school and in-class fundraisers, etc.
● Summary listing of physical activity programs and opportunities for students throughout the
school year.
 Student Nutrition

[Note: The Act requires that the school district’s wellness policy provide an assurance that guidelines for reimbursable school
meals shall not be less restrictive than regulations and guidance issued by the Secretary of Agriculture pursuant to the Child
Nutrition Act (42 U.S.C. 1771 et seq.) and sections 9(f)(1) and 17(a) of the National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1758(f)(1),
1766(a), as those regulations apply to schools.]

The School Breakfast/Lunch Programs:

● The full meal school breakfast and lunch programs will continue to follow the USDA Requirements for Federal
School Meals Programs. St. Peter’s School will provide breakfast through the USDA School Breakfast Program
● The Food Service Director will work closely with the Wellness Advisory Council.
**All Students will be served a reimbursable meal regardless of an unpaid balance.
**Applications for free/reduced priced meals are sent home to all families at the beginning of the school year. It is
available for school families throughout the year if requested.
**Students will be encouraged to help plan a menu-1 weeks worth- and still keep in USDA Nutritional Standards.
Cafeteria Environment:
● A cafeteria environment that provides students with a relaxed, enjoyable climate shall be developed.
● The cafeteria environment is a place where students have:
➢ Adequate space to eat and clean, pleasant surroundings;
➢ Adequate time to eat meals. (The American School Food Service Association recommends at least 20 minutes for
lunch from the time students are seated with their food);
➢ Convenient access to hand washing or hand sanitizing facilities before meals.
➢ Recess is before lunch for better eating and digestion.
**The cafeteria is cashless—all students, regardless of the type of payment they make for school meals, or the food being
purchased (meal) are given a pin number to enter at the cash register.
Fundraising:
● All fund-raising projects are encouraged to follow the school Nutrition Standards.
● All fund-raising projects for sale and consumption within and prior to the instructional day will follow the Nutrition standards
when determining the items being sold.
Teacher-to-Student Incentive:
Strong consideration should be given to non-food items as part of any teacher-to-student incentive program. The use of food items as
part of a student incentive program is strongly discouraged. Should teachers feel compelled to utilize food items as an incentive, they
are required to adhere to the school Nutrition Standards.
Student Nutrition Education:
St. Peter’s School has a comprehensive curriculum approach to nutrition in Kindergarten through 6 th grade. All K-6 instructional staff
will be encouraged to integrate nutritional themes into daily lessons when appropriate. The health benefits of good nutrition should be
emphasized. These nutritional themes include but are not limited to:
Knowledge of the Food Guide Pyramid
Sources & variety of foods
Diet and disease
Healthy snacks
Healthy diet
Major nutrients
Serving sizes
Identify and limit foods of low nutrient density
Healthy heart choices
Dietary Guidelines for Americans
Understanding calories
Healthy breakfast
Food labels
Multicultural influences
Proper Food safety/Sanitation
The nutrition policy reinforces nutrition education to help students practice these themes in a supportive school environment.
Parent Nutrition Education:
● Nutrition education will be provided to parents.
● Nutrition education may be provided in the form of handouts, articles and information provided in school newsletters,
presentations that focus on nutritional value and healthy lifestyles, and through any other appropriate means available for
reaching parents.
Staff Nutrition & Physical Activity Education:
With the purposes of:
● Encouraging all school staff to improve their own personal health and wellness
● Improving staff morale
● Creating positive role modeling
● Building the commitment of staff to promote the health of students
● Building the commitment of staff to help improve the school wellness environment.
Wellness education opportunities will be provided to all school staff. These educational opportunities may include, but not be limited
to, the distribution of educational and informational materials and the arrangement of presentations and workshops that focus on
nutritional value and healthy lifestyles, health assessments, fitness activities, and other appropriate nutrition and physical activity-
related topics.

School Nutrition Standards

Nutrition Standards Intent/Rationale:
St. Peter’s School strongly encourages the sale or distribution of nutrient dense foods for all school functions and activities. Nutrient
dense foods are those foods that provide students with calories rich in the nutrient content needed to be healthy. In an effort to support
the consumption of nutrient dense foods in the school setting, the school has adopted the following nutrition standards governing the
sale of food, beverage, and candy on school grounds. All affected parties are encouraged to study these standards and adhere to the
policy using the following Nutrition Standards as minimal guidelines. Example: Meals served through the district’s food services
program shall comply with the National School Lunch and/or Breakfast standards for meal patterns, nutrient levels, and calorie
requirements for the ages/grade levels served, as specified in 7 CFR 210.10 or 220.8, as applicable.
Food:
● Encourage the consumption of nutrient dense foods, i.e. WHOLE GRAINS FRESH FRUITS, VEGETABLES, and DAIRY
PRODUCTS.
● Any given food item for sale prior to the start of the school day and throughout the instructional day, will have no more than
30% of its total calories derived from fat.
● Any given food item for sale prior to the start of the school day and throughout the instructional day, will have no more than
10% of its total calories derived from saturated fat.
● Nuts and seeds with minimal added fat in processing (no more than 3 grams of added fat per 1.75 ounce or less package size)
are exempt from these standards because they are nutrient dense and contain high levels of monounsaturated fat.
● It is recognized that there may be rare special occasions when the school principal may allow a school group to deviate from
these Standards, but those special occasions must be recorded and included in the Wellness Advisory Council Annual Report.
**St. Peter’s will work towards including fresh, locally-grown foods in school meals when possible.
**St. Peter’s will follow the Smart Snacks in School standards for all food and beverages served or sold to students on school
campus during the school day. At this time St. Peter’s Catholic School does not have an A la cart program, vending machines or a
school store.
Beverages:
● ONLY Milk, Water, and beverages containing 50-100 % fruit juices with no added artificial or natural sweeteners may be
sold or served on school grounds both immediately prior to and throughout the instructional day. Beverages containing
caffeine will not be served or sold on school grounds.
Candy:
● Candy is defined as any processed food item that has:
1. sugar (including brown sugar, corn sweetener, corn syrup, fructose, glucose(dextrose), high fructose corn syrup, honey,
invert sugar, lactose, maltose, molasses, raw sugar, table sugar (sucrose), syrup) is listed as one of the first two
ingredients AND
2. sugar is more than 25% of the item by weight.
● Vending sales will not be permitted on school grounds.
● Non-vending sales of candy will be permitted ONLY at the conclusion of the instructional school day.
Staff Qualifications and Professional Development
All school nutrition program directors, managers and staff will meet or exceed hiring and annual continuing education/training
requirements in the USDA professional standards for child nutrition professionals. These school nutrition personnel will refer to
USDA’s Professional Standards for School Nutrition Standards website to search for training that meets their learning needs.
Water
To promote hydration, free, safe, unflavored drinking water will be available to all students throughout the school day* and
throughout every school campus* (“school campus” and “school day” are defined in the glossary). The District will make drinking
water available where school meals are served during meal times.
▪ Students will be allowed to bring and carry (approved) water bottles filled with only water with them throughout the day.
Student Physical Activity
Physical Activity Goal:
The School of St. Peter shall provide physical activity and physical education opportunities that provide students with the knowledge
and skills to lead a physically active lifestyle. St. Peter’s Catholic School is MNSAA accredited and follow their guidelines with
specialty areas, such as qualifications for physical education teachers.
[Note: The Act requires that wellness policies include goals for nutrition education, physical activity, and other school-based
activities that are designed to promote student wellness in a manner that the school district determines is appropriate.]
St. Peter’s School shall utilize the following Implementation strategies:
1. Physical education classes and physical activity opportunities will be available for all students.
2. Physical activity opportunities shall be offered daily during school (recess).
3. As recommended by the National Association of Sport and Physical Education (NASPE), school leaders of physical activity
and physical education shall guide students through a process that will enable them to achieve and maintain a high level of
personal fitness through the following:
● Expose youngsters to a wide variety of physical activities.
● Teach physical skills to help maintain a lifetime of health and fitness
● Encourage self-monitoring so youngsters can see how active they are and set their own goals
● Individualize intensity of activities
● Focus feedback on the process of doing your best rather than on the product
● Be active role models
4. Introduce developmentally appropriate components of a health-related fitness assessment, (e.g. Fitness Gram, Physical Best
or President’s Council) to the students at an early age to prepare them for future assessments.
5. Begin fitness or activity logging in elementary school. Assist students to interpret their personal attainments and compare
them to national physical activity recommendations.
● All elementary school students shall receive 150 minutes per week of physical education instruction throughout the
school year
● Children should participate in several bouts of physical activity lasting 20 minutes or more each day.
● Children should participate each day in a variety of age-appropriate physical activities designed to achieve optimal
health, wellness, fitness and performance benefits
● Extended periods (periods of two hours or more) of inactivity are discouraged for children, especially during
the daytime hours.
6. Physical education classes shall be sequential, building from year to year, and content will include movement, personal
fitness, and personal and social responsibility. Students should be able to demonstrate competency through application of
knowledge, skill, and practice. (NASPE recommendations for physical education are 150 minutes per week for elementary
students.)
7. St. Peter’s may not allow students to be exempt for required physical education class time or credit. There will be no
substitutions allowed for the physical education time requirement.
8. All schools are required to develop comprehensive school physical activity programs that address family and community
engagements in physical activity, and provide a wide-variety of offerings.
9. Students should have the opportunity to be physically active before and after school.
10. St. Peter’s is in joint agreement with Canby Public Schools in order to include our students in clubs, intramural,
interscholastic opportunities.
11. St. Peter’s shall partner with local government and community-based agencies to support active transport to school to
implement a comprehensive active transport program (Safe Routes to School Program). St. Peter’s also takes part in the
School Safety Patrol.
12. Food rewards are prohibited and teachers are provided with a list of alternative ideas. We strongly recommend staff use
physical activity as a reward when feasible.
13. Students shall not be required to engage in physical activity as punishment nor will it be withheld as punishment.

WELLNESS PROMOTION AND MARKETING:

1. The healthiest choices, such as salads and fruit, will be prominently displayed in the cafeterias to encourage students to
make healthy choices.
2. School-based marketing shall be consistent with Smart Snacks nutrition standards.
3. Display and advertising of unhealthful foods is strongly discouraged on school grounds.
 4. Criteria for selecting educational materials for the classroom shall be expanded to include review of advertising content.
Every effort will be made to select materials free of brand names/logos and illustrations of unhealthy foods.
5. Advertising of any food or beverage that may not be sold on campus during the school day is prohibited. Advertising of
any brand on containers used to serve food or in areas where food is purchased is prohibited.
6. St. Peter’s will not expose students to food marketing of any kind. All advertising in school publications and school
media outlets must be approved by the principal.
7. It is recommended that schools avoid participation in fundraising or corporate incentive programs that promote a
message inconsistent with our goals for a healthy school community.
POLICY IMPLEMENTATION AND MONITORING
A. Implementation and Publication
1. After approval by the school board, the wellness policy will be implemented throughout the school district.
2. The school district will post its wellness policy on its website, to the extent it maintains a website.
3. Students, parents, staff and/or community members are welcome to join the committee.
B. Annual Reporting
The Nutrition Coordinator and Director of Food and Nutrition Services will annually inform the public via a School Board
Presentation about the content and implementation of the wellness policy and make the policy and any updates to the policy available
to the public.
C. Triennial Assessment
1. At least once every three years, the school district will evaluate compliance with the wellness policy to assess the implementation of
the policy and create a report that includes the following information:
a. the extent to which schools under the jurisdiction of the school district are incompliance with the wellness policy;
b. the extent to which the school district’s wellness policy compares to model local wellness policies; and
c. a description of the progress made in attaining the goals of the school district’s wellness policy.
2. The Nutrition Coordinator with input from the Director of Food and Nutrition Services and Wellness Committee will be responsible
for conducting the triennial assessment.
3. The triennial assessment report shall be posted on the school district’s website or otherwise made available to the public.
D. Recordkeeping
The school district will retain records to document compliance with the requirements of the wellness policy. The records to be retained
include, but are not limited to:
1. The school district’s written wellness policy.
2. Documentation demonstrating compliance with community involvement requirements, including requirements to make the local
school wellness policy and triennial assessments available to the public.
3. Documentation of the triennial assessment of the local school wellness policy for each school under the school district’s jurisdiction
efforts to review and update wellness policy (including an indication of who is involved in the update and methods the school district
uses to make stakeholders aware of their ability to participate on the Wellness Committee).

Legal References: Minn. Stat. § 121A.215 (Local School District Wellness Policy)
42 U.S.C. § 1751 et seq. (Healthy and Hunger-Free Kids Act)
42 U.S.C. § 1758b (Local School Wellness Policy)
42 U.S.C. § 1771 et seq. (Child Nutrition Act of 1966)
7 U.S.C. § 5341 (Establishment of Dietary Guidelines)
7 C.F.R. § 210.10 (School Lunch Program Regulations)
7 C.F.R. § 220.8 (School Breakfast Program Regulations)
Local Resources: Minnesota Department of Education, www.education.state.mn.us
Minnesota Department of Health, www.health.state.mn.us
County Health Departments
Action for Healthy Kids Minnesota, www.actionforhealthykids.org
United States Department of Agriculture, www.fns.usda.gov
The school district will post this wellness policy on its website, to the extent it maintains a website.

Adopted: June, 2006 Effective: School Year 2006-2007 Reviewed/updated: December 9, 2016; August 21, 2020