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September
Visit our September Calendar
Back to School in RI means back to healthier school environments that will become even more nutritious and more physically active this school year!
Hello Everyone
This school year opens with many exciting projects that will further improve
the school nutrition environments for the students and staff of our schools.
This year, 12 RI school districts (1/3) are implementing improved nutrition
criteria for school breakfast and lunches, entitled RI Nutrition Requirements
2009 (RINR 2009) district-wide, beginning on the first day of school.
Most of the remaining 2/3 of the RI school districts will be either piloting
or fully implementing RINR 2009 before the year is out. This means that
students across the state will be offered more and a wider variety of
fruits, vegetables and whole grains everyday in school. This school year,
ALL RI schools should be fully implementing the "RI Healthier Beverages
and Snacks in Schools Law" (http://thriveri.org/moreinfo/legislation.html#lawsnut)
and Kids First is ready to assist however you would like us to. This year,
parent and other school groups will have access to a new "Healthy Fundraising"
workshop currently in development at Kids First and Superintendents will
continue to be able to schedule the popular and successful Superintendent's
Wellness Workshop, developed in partnership with RISSA, for their leadership
teams. This school year, the RI Farm to School Project at Kids First will
continue to GROW until all 36 RI school districts are purchasing at least
one fresh fruit or vegetable from a RI farmer and many RI schools will
make regular purchases of a wider variety of items from RI farmers, including
Rhody Fresh milk. This year, 20+ RI schools will have access to the USDA
Free Fruit and Vegetable Program which provides free fruits and vegetables,
locally grown whenever possible, to students during the school day. There's
so much more in the works… so stay tuned.
We invite every RI citizen to join us in our pursuit of more nutritious school environments. Let's all keep working together to improve the health and wellbeing of RI's children. We CAN make a difference for THEM.
Enjoy
all those tasty, nutritious RI grown fruits and veggies this month!
Dorothy Brayley
Executive Director
