3-A-Day Grant Recipient Creates Model for Community Involvement in School Wellness

The hallmark of a successful grant project is being able to replicate it. That's the case with the turn-key lessons and activities created through the 3-A-Day™ of Dairy Grant National Dairy Council® awarded to Registered Dietitian and Project Manager, Robin Whitely, and Curriculum Director, Rena Cadro, for implementation at Plainfield High School, Central Village, Connecticut. Whitely, who developed the lessons, also represents a model of how community health professional involvement can support school wellness.

Whitely wrote the grant and approached the high school with the goal of enhancing the nutrition component of the high school's health curriculum and providing nutrition learning opportunities that the school could use for years to come. Though this project was developed for high school students, educators and school nutrition directors can easily adapt it for other ages and settings as well.

3-A-Day™ of Dairy: From the Classroom to the Cafeteria

Two highly interactive lessons and cafeteria-based activities targeted students to improve their nutrition knowledge, become advocates of healthy eating and consume three daily servings of dairy. Key components of the program included:

• Classroom lessons for all 9th-grade health classes that included hands-on activities, such as:
  • Calcium Line-up and Jeopadairy games
  • Making and tasting yogurt parfaits
  • Dairy for Teens pre- and post-tests
  • 3-A-Day™ of Dairy Tracking
• A cafeteria-based 'Low-fat Milk Challenge Tasting' activity* for the entire student body
• A cafeteria-based 'Smoothie Tasting' activity* for the entire student body
• A school-wide '3-A-Day™ of Dairy Rap Contest'*

*See "Going Further" in the Lessons

Whiteley's "Keys to Success"

Whiteley's lessons empowered students by keeping them involved in every aspect of the educational process. To motivate students to make changes and include three daily servings of dairy, Whiteley's lesson content appeals to this age-group's focus on appearance and demonstrates how it can be enhanced by healthier eating. The lessons also appeal to their desire for improved performance in physical education and sports. To peak student interest, Whitely recommends the following strategies:

• Invite interested students to volunteer and form a committee to provide input and assist with activities from the program's outset.
• Provide positive feedback for active participation in both classroom and cafeteria activities.
• Feature students' pictures on posters made for various activities.
• Solicit students' input for the foods used in the yogurt parfait and smoothie tasting activities.
• Keep the discussion relevant to issues students deal with as teens, such as looking good, and relate it to what they are learning in other classes, such as geography or language arts.
• Write personal thank you notes to student volunteers and place a thank you letter in the school newspaper.

Impact

The program was designed to reach 200 freshmen students in the classroom and cafeteria. In addition, 150 upper-class students were reached through the cafeteria activities.

• Increased dairy consumption. A sample of students who were surveyed using 24-hour recalls before and after the two classroom lessons had an increase in dairy consumption of an average of 1 1/4 cups per day.
• Improved knowledge. Pre- and post-tests, which were conducted in two of the five classes, showed an improvement in knowledge, demonstrated by an average of an 81 percent score increase.
• Milk choices. Sixty-five percent (65%) liked a lower-fat milk than they usually drank and said they were willing to change to the milk they tasted in the Low-Fat Milk Challenge.

Download the lessons and activities for your program.