This school year marked the new ‘Go Healthy, Go Green’ initiative at St. Peter’s Episcopal School, encouraging healthy eating habits, physical fitness and sustainable lifestyles through educational activities and involvement among its staff, students and families.
For the school’s outstanding progress in this area (which includes its lunch program with Greenlife Grocery, Blue Cross Blue Shield Walking Works program and our organic garden), it was recently recognized by the newly formed White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
The school, represented by Ms. Melton, was one of only 35 organizations invited to a White House Stakeholders Meeting on the First Lady’s Let’s Move Initiative, which boldly pledges to eradicate childhood obesity within a generation.
At the meeting, Ms. Melton, and others, shared best practices to develop a toolkit for faith-based organizations to support this initiative. The toolkit will elaborate on four parts of the First Lady’s platform, including: Healthy Choices, Healthier Schools, Physical Activity and Affordable, Accessible Healthy Food. While there, Ms. Melton met with Sam Kass, White House Assistant Chef and Food Initiative Coordinator and Jocelyn Frye, Policy Director for the Office of the First Lady, among other USDA officials.
While St. Peter’s Episcopal School already engages our students in many of the “Let’s Move” tactics, we hope to incorporate even more ideas after the toolkit is launched this spring. Additionally, work also continues as stakeholders attending the meeting (such as Ms. Melton) are now working hard to collect resources and “tools” from their individual communities to supplement this toolkit. Best practices from schools, churches and community groups will be a part of this unique packet to promote the “Let’s Move” initiative. For more information on this initiative, visit http://www.letsmove.gov/.
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