| Program/Activity Description |
East Middle School has initiated a quest, dubbed Project Nutrition, by students, staff, and community members to improve healthy food and drink choices that students make in school. The project started with an action plan developed by students who attended a teen health workshop offered by the Montana Office of Public Instruction. The faculty advisor, a music teacher, actively supported the project.
Community support for the project included a public nutrition forum with student leaders, the mayor of Great Falls, school food service supervisors, the City/County Health Department, and Assistant Superintendent Dick Kuntz. This forum was featured on the evening news and in the Great Falls Tribune newspaper.
The teens, with help from their faculty advisor, applied for and received a $500 Nutrition $EN$E grant from the Montana Team Nutrition Program. They also received an anonymous $400 donation and a refrigerator and napkin dispenser donated by local businesses.
Students involved in the student store learned business skills, leadership, and teamwork. They had numerous media interviews and are now giving presentations about their project to other schools and at statewide conferences.
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| Program/Activity Outcome |
- Students at East Middle School have provided the motivation and leadership for improving their school nutrition environment. As part of a school-wide Project Nutrition, the students and their faculty advisor (a music teacher) have marketed nutrient-rich choices through a student store and also helped to influence changes in school vending and food service.
- With the help of a Montana Team Nutrition Nutrition $EN$E project mini-grant of $500, the student-run store added healthier snacks and drinks.
- In addition to school supplies, the school store now sells 16 healthier snacks and drinks before and after school every day, including bagels, fruit muffins, trail mix, pretzels, granola bars, breakfast squares, crackers, beef jerky, string cheese, pudding, fruit cups, and yogurt. The snacks are sold at lower prices than vending machine items, but at equal or higher prices than food service items offered at breakfast and lunch. For example, beef jerky in the vending machine is 65 cents, but in the school store it is only 50 cents. Similarly, string cheese is only 30 cents in the school store, the same price as the string cheese the food service sells in the cafeteria.
- The students developed daily nutrition announcements and other advertising for the snacks, such as announcing store selections over the school-wide PA system. Sales have continued to increase steadily. Beef jerky is the most popular item with students; string cheese is the biggest seller with teachers.
- Because of the students’ leadership and the increasing consumer demand, the cafeteria à la carte line now offers healthier snacks during lunch as well, including trail mix, baked chips, cheese, beef jerky, granola bars, and yogurt. According to school food service staff, there was no change in à la carte profits when they switched to healthier options.
- The students also approached the school’s vending company about offering more nutritious options in their machines. After discovering that some of the healthier snacks in the vending machines sold just as well as candy and chips, the company traded one of their candy machines for a “healthy choices” snack machine, with nuts, crackers, snack mix, and other nutrient-rich items.
- Again, because of student influence, four of the school’s vending machines— all of them except the “healthy choices” machine—were turned off during the school day.
- The students have helped create a significant change in overall attitudes toward the healthier food choices at East Middle School. Although some students were skeptical at first, they became interested, respectful, responsive and, most importantly, customers!
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| Story Highlights |
Keys to Success:
- Customer focus: Surveying students about preferences to find out what nutritious snacks they liked most. These are the best-selling items in the store
- Limiting access: Turning off most of the vending machines for the entire school day, including the store hours before school, after school, and during lunch
- Pricing: Selling the healthier school store items for less than those of the vending machine for similar, but less nutritious items
- Marketing: Advertising the new snack selections over the school PA system
Future Plans:
- A poster contest to advertise the tasty, nutritious choices available in the store, with a $20 gift certificate to a bookstore as the prize
- Upgrade the student store to expand selection, including remodeling to fit a new freezer and microwave
- A joint project involving the student store, teachers, and funding from the PTA that rewards students with coupons for 50 cents off healthy snacks in the store. Students earn the coupons for positive behaviors and study habits in the classroom.
- Switching times for recess and lunch so that lunch is after recess.
- Continuing the project in another school after East Middle School closes at the end of the 2004-2005 school year.
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