Health is elementary

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For Shelby County students, training for a healthy lifestyle is an unavoidable part of schooling. The moment they walk through the doors, physical education and nutrition take priority alongside reading and writing.

But for many, preparation for a healthy life started long before. As more parents are becoming increasingly aware of the growing childhood obesity epidemic, more are seeking to teach healthy behaviors early.

And it’s happening from Hoover to Calera.

In April, a study declared Shelby County as the healthiest in the state. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute conducted the study, which compared Alabama’s counties across 25 categories. Shelby County was at or near the top in almost every factor surveyed, but it excelled in areas related to the health of its children.

Exercise

The study found that Shelby boasts the most active population in the state, with just 24 percent of county residents reportedly physically inactive. At Greystone Elementary, students are not only required to participate in physical activity for 30 minutes a day, they’re also encouraged to participate in many extracurricular physical activities like the Jaguar Running Club, Jump Rope for Heart and even the Mercedes Marathon.

 “The main thing we stress is that we aren’t going to talk much, but we are going to get moving as soon as possible,” said Greystone Physical Education Teacher Rand Payton. “We start in kindergarten, and their physical education is high-intensity from then on.”

Payton said that with children, teaching a healthy lifestyle starts both by encouraging exercise and leading by example, which is also important when it comes to what they eat.

“As educators, we can talk about healthy eating,” he said. “But we definitely never want to see a PE teacher come out on the gym floor with a Twinkie in hand.”

Leading by example has worked. The county also has the second-lowest obesity rate in the state at 28 percent. And, as children grow in both the Hoover and Shelby County systems, they’re constantly reminded of the building blocks of a healthy life. It’s led Shelby County to the highest percentage of children who attend college (74 percent), the state’s lowest unemployment rate (6.3 percent) and one of the leading graduation rates (86 percent).

Eating right

August’s lunch menu for Shelby County schools includes fresh vegetables every day of the week and no mention of cookies. The daily offerings aren’t unlike those from other schools in the state, but Shelby County was one of the first systems in the nation to make the shift from fried foods and sweet desserts to English peas and pineapple chunks.

As a result, 20 Shelby County elementary and intermediate schools were among the first to earn the Healthier U.S. School Challenge Gold Award with Distinction on a system-wide basis. It was the result of collaborative efforts between school nutrition staff, wellness coordinators, faculty and the school community, and it earned system administration a congratulatory meeting with First Lady Michelle Obama in 2010.

“In 2005, the State of Alabama along with the USDA (United States Food and Drug Administration) developed more stringent guidelines,” said Maureen Alexander, coordinator of the Shelby County Board of Education’s Child Nutrition Program. “Schools had to meet higher standards for snacks and foods sold during school day.”

Alexander said Shelby County’s parents were largely prepared for the shift.

“At first, whole-grain bread required a learning curve,” she said. “But with the obesity crisis, everybody’s level of awareness changed. When we started in Shelby County, it was by mandate not choice. But we had great cooperation because this population was already educated on eating healthy.”

Social factors

Shelby also leads the state in social factors judged by the study – and by no small margin. It reportedly has the lowest rate of children in poverty at 12 percent, 8 percent lower than the next county on the list, and it has the lowest rate of children in single-parent homes at 19 percent, 5 percent lower than any other.

Both of these figures place the county ahead of the RWJF’s national benchmarks for 2013 and in the 90th percentile nationwide. However, some in the county don’t see those numbers as a victory.

“The first thing is, I always tell people there are 9,100 kids in Shelby County on free or reduced lunch,” said Ward Williams, founder and director of Vineyard Family Services. “Even if that is the lowest in the state, it’s not a low number.”

Williams sees that 12 percent as 5,728 children in poverty and the 19 percent as 9,450 children in single-parent homes, which his organization is actively working to reduce.

“Family dynamics are one of most stressful things in anyone’s life, period,” Williams said. “Poverty leads to conflict, which a lot of people in poverty have a lower capacity to handle. It affects a child’s ability to learn because when kid is hungry, that’s all he’s thinking about.”  

Overall, the county has prioritized raising healthier generations than the ones before and it shows. But those on the front lines of the fight know there is and will be room for improvement for generations to come. So, what’s next, Alexander said, is to keep at it.

“Our goal is that we keep taking the lemons and making lemonade,” she said. “Just, with a little less sugar.”