Food and Nutrition Policy

FOOD AND NUTRITION POLICY

NUTRITION POLICY The staff at SCS care deeply about your children and will work hard to teach them how to make healthy choices and lead fit lifestyles. Research suggests a positive correlation between a student's health and well-being and his/her ability to learn.  Your children's time at SCS can play an important role in the developmental process by which students establish their health and nutritional habits. 

Please enforce healthy eating habits at home and do not send in junk food or food that is high in sugar. Students are not permitted to drink sodas or drinks with a high sugar content at school, either. Sharing food will not be permitted to ensure that your children are eating what you intended.

HEALTH AND NUTRITION In some places, students are rewarded with snacks and candy. At Sigsbee Charter School, rewards focus on positive praise, not material tokens or food. This is one way we can teach our children that feeling good about your behavior is a reward in itself.  Nutrition promotion can positively influence lifelong eating behaviors by creating food environments that encourage healthy choices and encourage participation in the school's meal program.

The SCS environment, including the cafeteria and classrooms, shall provide clear and consistent messages that promote and reinforce healthy eating.

CLASSROOM SNACKS AND CELEBRATIONS All food distributed to children's groups must be store-bought and packaged. Shared items must also be healthy and contain less than 10 grams of sugar per serving. Snacks such as fruit, cheese and crackers, vegetables, and dip are class favorites. Please be mindful of any classroom allergies. Teachers are willing to help you find healthy, safe alternatives. The staff will not distribute home-baked goods or foods that violate the nutrition policy. This includes items sent in for students’ birthdays or class celebrations. Prior arrangements must be made with the child’s teacher to bring a snack to class. Items should be delivered to the main office. Food not meeting the nutrition guidelines will be returned to the parent.

LUNCH PROCEDURES Students have at least 20 minutes to eat their lunch once it is received.  SCS will allow students to purchase breakfast and lunch using the National Food Lunch Program. Please make sure to consult the weekly menu, posted in the SCOOP. Students must participate in the breakfast and lunch count when planning to eat the food provided. If your child is allergic to the meal, please do not have him/ her accept school breakfast or lunch on that day.  

It is possible that late arrivals to school will not be able to enter the breakfast/lunch count.

If you do not want your child to receive school breakfast or lunch, please email the office and your child’s teacher stating that your child is not allowed to opt in.

BAGGED LUNCH Students are welcome to bring lunch to school in lieu of eating school lunch. Home lunches will not be refrigerated but kept in the air-conditioned cafeteria. Please do not pack items that will spoil and make sure all lunch boxes are labeled with your child’s name. Students are not permitted to share or trade food items.

FOOD DELIVERY We appreciate families who send their children to school with lunch rather than delivering lunch later in the day. The office staff will not interrupt classroom instruction for food delivery as it becomes time-consuming and distracting to your child’s learning to unite your child with a lunch that has been delivered once school starts. Please make every effort to prepare your child’s food before school. If a parent brings food after school has started, the office staff will direct him/her to the appropriate rolling cart in the cafeteria. Parents cannot enter the learning areas to deliver lunches once instruction has begun.

Additionally, SCS staff will not accept food for students delivered by vendors.

SUGGESTED SNACKS

● Celery and cream cheese or peanut butter,

● Cucumber slices and cheese slices

● Triangle sandwich squares with cream cheese and cucumbers

● Plain yogurt with toppings to add such as granola, honey, fresh or dried fruit and nuts ● Corn Tortilla Chips and Salsa or Guacamole

● Pretzels with Peanut Butter

● Hummus

● Trail Mix with dried fruit, and raisins

● Vegetables and dip, (carrots sugar snap peas, celery, cherry tomatoes, pepper slices, cucumbers)

● Fruit (orange slices, cuties, grapes, berries, bananas, cantaloupe and melon cubes, watermelon slices, apple slices)

● Cottage cheese

● Popcorn & Raisin

● Turkey or ham rolls up with cheese

● Peanut butter and banana

● Strawberry and cream cheese quesadilla

● Rice cakes with unsweetened applesauce

● Plain Graham crackers with fruit or peanut butter

● Sunflower seeds

● Pita chips,

● Whole grain crackers with cheese hummus or guacamole

● Fruit leather, natural (not fruit roll-up)

● Frozen Fruit Popsicles