Choose My Plate

J Carrillo
PPE 310 Health Literacy for Schools
Professor Lineberry
March 19th, 2016

Choose My Plate

Choose My Plate

Introduction
Health and nutrition is an extremely important factor in a childs life, especially at a
young age. They need to be educated by both their parents and their teachers. Especially
because children at a young age are so easily influenced, and they look to their parents
and teachers as role models. Parents provide their children with certain foods, but
teachers can make an impact by discussions at school, as well as eating healthy foods in
front of the students. This food tracker that was created allows students to track what
they are eating throughout the day and see what they are doing to their body based on
gender, age and height.
Summary
This assignment was done by creating a hypothetical student and a food tracking profile
for them. The information was based off of a typical ten year old male student who eats
breakfast and lunch in the cafeteria at Whitman Elementary in Mesa, Arizona. The food
tracker tool was used to show calories consumed, nutritional facts and targeted amount of
physical activity. The information provided in the tracker was then used to find
information and compare it to national standards for school meals, dietary guidelines for
americans and to get the teacher thinking of changes that are necessary for the students.
National Standards for School Meals
The list of standards were created to give schools a guideline for what the food should
look like that they are providing to the students. It sets up schools to provide healthy
options for both breakfast and lunch. After reading through the standards I realized
Whitman Elementary does not meet all the requirements. While they do offer a fruit and
vegetables at lunch every day, they do not offer a daily meat option at breakfast or whole

Choose My Plate

grains at every meal. Whitman Elementary is on a free-reduced policy and the

requirements include the following: Include goals for nutrition, promotion and education,
physical activity, and other school-based activities that promote student wellness. They
must include nutrition guidelines to promote student health and reduce childhood obesity
for all foods available in each school district, permit parents, students, representatives of
the school food authority, teachers of physical education, school health professionals, the
school board, school administrators, and the general public to participate in the
development, implementation, and review and update of the local wellness policy. They
must inform and update the public about the content and implementation of local
wellness policies. They need to be measured periodically on the extent to which schools
are in compliance with the local wellness policy, the extent to which the local education
agencys local wellness policy compares to model local school wellness policies, and the
progress made in attaining the goals of the local wellness policy, and make this
assessment available to the public.
Dietary Guidelines for Americans
A child consuming this breakfast and lunch at school would not meet the dietary
guidelines because it appears that according to the food tracker this student would be
under the daily intake for every food group including grains, protein, dairy, fruits, and
vegetables. However, this is only two meals and does not include a potential snack and/or
dinner. It is quite possible that the missing half cup of milk, one ounce of protein and one
cup of fruit they could be easily attained with dinner and a snack, maybe even adding in
one and a quarter ounce of vegetables to reach that last goal. The only portion I can see
be harder to reach would be the four and a half ounce of grains.

Choose My Plate

Changes/Improvements
There are a few changes I would make at Whitman if I were able to. I would implement
mandatory snack because I think the kids could benefit greatly from an extra opportunity
to eat during the day. In fact, I notice that most students dont finish all their fruits or
vegetables at lunch. So, at snack time I would also try to have the kids served a fruit or
vegetable that would typically be served at lunch in addition to their own snack that they
will have. The last change I would make would be to implement mandatory restroom
breaks, which will also be used to give students a brain break and fill up any water bottles
to ensure they are getting enough water throughout the day.
Reflection
I think this is a tough activity to assess. Im not sure that this resonates with a younger
audience. I think that kids in fifth grade or lower may not understand the magnitude of
this type of activity. This activity may be a little over their head, I mean were talking
about counting calories, measuring cups/oz of fruits, vegetables, and proteins. These are
basic concepts that most adults cant grasp, so asking a ten or eleven year old to embrace
this is too much. Kids struggle with adding fractions, how are they going to measure their
food group intakes? I think in order for this to be not just useful but impactful and kid
friendly it has to be simplified even more. Now on the flip-side as kids get older they get
more concerned about their bodies, maybe for superficial reasons, and they have more of
a desire to be leaner because of the media or cause their favorite celebrity looks a certain
way. Also puberty is starting to hit so Id say that once the kids reach 6 grade they know
th

that its about to become more real so they may be more interested in an activity like
this so that they can attempt to figure out and calculate ways to look better. Not

Choose My Plate

necessarily be healthier, but if it can help them achieve a certain look sometimes kids will
be interested. In assessing this activity I think that it is useful, but depends on the
audience and how you present it.

Choose My Plate

References
2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. (n.d.). Retrieved March 21, 2016, from
http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/2015-2020-dietary-guidelines-americans

Dietary Guidelines. (n.d.). Retrieved March 21, 2016, from

http://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/