PHAI Online - The Public Health Advocacy Institute
Transforming School Food
PHAI’s school food work focuses on how the law can be used as a public health tool to transform the school food environment into a healthy place for children to learn and grow.
Access to Low Cost Drinking Water in School Settings
Many school districts struggle with aging school buildings and very limited resources. Access to drinking water throughout the school day at no charge to students is an important step toward ensuring overall child health and to reducing the burden of chronic disease associated with overweight and obesity.
A Legal Framework for Drinking Fountains in MA Schools: On May 19, 2010, Staff Attorney Cara Wilking presented at the Harvard Prevention Research Center’s Seventh Annual Community Partners Meeting: What Are You Drinking NOW? The presentation entitled, “A Legal Framework for Drinking Fountains in MA Schools,” provided an overview of the factors influencing access to low cost drinking water in Massachusetts’ schools. CLICK HERE TO VIEW POWERPOINT SLIDES.
Other school drinking water resources:
- Patel AI, Bogart LM, Uyeda KE, Rabin A, Schuster MA, Perceptions about availability and adequacy of drinking water in a large California school district, Prev Chronic Dis. 2010 Mar;7(2):A3.
- Kumar Patel, California Food Policy Institute, Improving Water Consumption in Schools: Challenges, Promising Practices and Next Steps (Oct. 2009).
- www.waterinschools.org
Articles about child water consumption in general:
- Kant AK, Graubard BI, Contributors of water intake in US children and adolescents: associations with dietary and meal characteristics–National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2005-2006, Am J Clin Nutr. 2010 Oct;92(4):887-96. Epub 2010 Aug 4.
Mapping School Food: A Policy Guide
Mapping School Food: A Policy Guide [PDF] is a toolkit designed to assist key decision-makers to develop and enforce school food policies. Based on interviews and case studies, Mapping School Food will help you navigate the legal and policy complexities of transforming the school food environment. Mapping School Food was funded through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Healthy Eating Research program
Off the Map: Extracurricular School Food
The Off the Map: Extracurricular School Food project focuses on extracurricular environments, unique parts of the school food environment that are often outside the control of school food services and often involve parties outside of the school. The project compliments Mapping School Food with the following resources:
- Issue Brief: Open Campus Lunch [PDF]
- Issue Brief: School Stores, Concessions and Fundraising [PDF]
- Legal Notes: Open Campus Lunch & School Stores, Concessions and Fundraising [PDF]
Off the Map was funded through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Healthy Eating Research program.
Raw Deal: A Report on School Beverage Contracts
Released in 2006, Raw Deal reports on a national survey of school beverage contracts conducted by PHAI and the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). While the school beverage contract landscape has changed considerably since the initial release of the report, it still contains very useful information about the structure of school beverage contracts and issues to consider when renegotiating beverage contracts.
