PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles and Port Townsend school boards unanimously approved new nutrition and fitness policies at their respective meetings Monday.
At Port Angeles, the School Board passed a new plan that stresses purchasing locally grown, fresh foods.
The district also renewed its contract with Sodexho food company for another five years.
Under state law, all school districts must implement nutrition and fitness policies by Aug. 1 that place more controls on junk foods while increasing exercise times for students at all grade levels.
“We all have to do life changes sometime,” said Port Angeles School Board member Cindy Kelly, citing the reduced options students will have to purchase foods low in nutritional value.
While the new policy that goes into effect for next school year does not implement a “food police” to enforce eating habits on campus, Kelly said that it would be useful if teachers “are more thoughtful of what they eat in front of students during school.”
Soda pop sales restricted
The Port Angeles district’s policy calls for the elimination of soda pop being sold on school grounds until 30 minutes after the last lunch period.
It also recommends, for example, that meals for elementary students sold in the cafeterias will not have more than 10 percent of their calories deriving from saturated and trans fats.
And from now on, teachers are prohibited from using foods or beverages — especially those that do not meet minimum nutrition standards — as rewards for academic performance or good behavior.
In Port Townsend, the School Board also passed its nutrition and fitness policy unanimously, but the board did not include any references to buying locally grown or fresh foods.
“There were no changes from previous readings to the policy,” said Tom Opstad, Port Townsend School District’s superintendent.
“I’ll be meeting with the food service director soon to see how we will be implementing the new policy,” Opstad said.
Since the policy only regulates the sales of soda pop during certain hours, Opstad said the Port Townsend School District probably won’t be getting rid of soda vending machines altogether.
“We’re going to look at how to regulate those sales,” he said.