Recently, a friend of mine jokingly referred to me as “PEI’s Jamie Oliver”. Oliver— the infamous “Naked Chef”—has become a media darling, and has been credited with single handedly changing the foods that British students eat at school. Over the past five years, I have appeared in the local media a number of times speaking about the issue of healthy eating in schools, and in a small place like PEI, these appearances have made me seem somewhat of a local celebrity.

In reality, an entire team of people helped to change the food environment in PEI schools: the PEI Healthy Eating Alliance (HEA), formed in 2001. In the beginning, a rag tag group of dietitians, school district officials, and government and community types pledged to work to improve children’s eating habits and reduce childhood obesity. At the HEA, we decided to focus on schools first because they are increasingly recognized as having a potentially powerful influence on students’ eating habits.

With my researcher hat on, I spent the next few years surveying almost 5000 children in Grades 4 to 9, and finding out what foods were being sold in PEI schools. The news was not good. Children were not consuming enough milk, vegetables, or fruit, and many were eating chips, candy, and fries on a daily basis. High-fat foods like hot dogs and chicken nuggets were commonly sold for lunches, and vending machines were full of pop and candy.

These kinds of eating habits, combined with the documented low activity levels in children, are associated with increase risk of obesity and Type 2 Diabetes in both childhood and in adulthood. So I put on my volunteer hat, and hit the speaker circuit, presenting my research findings and our plans to schools, teachers, government, and anyone else who would listen.

In 2003, we received funding from the PEI Department of Health, hired a co-ordinator, and initiated the development of healthy eating policies in PEI elementary and consolidated schools (schools without cafeterias). Unlike some other provinces, we decided to use a fully consultative approach. All three school districts signed on and helped us identify 17 keen schools across the province who were willing us to help us write and try out new healthy eating policies in each of three school boards on PEI. We worked very hard together with teachers, parents, and principals/vice principals to come up with a policy that would work, and would be supported.

After many meetings, multiple revisions, and lots of coffee, muffins, and fruit trays, the policy was finished, and adopted by the two English school boards in 2005. We expect to see the third and final French school board adopt theirs in the next few months, so that all elementary schools in the province will have a new healthy eating policy that covers everything from foods sold at school and adequate time for lunch (20 minutes)—something I was passionate about—, to prohibiting chocolate bar sales.

Our success has been attributed in part to timing—interest in childhood obesity had reached an all time high in 2001—and the fact that we worked closely with those who have the best understanding of how to develop and implement policies in schools—those who are in the trenches. We also brought schools together to talk nutrition and gave them resources their teachers could use. That certainly helped build trust, and positive and lasting relationships.

I believe that we cannot have sustainable change without a change in values, and school nutrition policy helps send a clear message that schools value children’s health. I feel motivated to continue when I turn on the local news and see one of our teachers retort “We’re not going back! …Not going back to toxic (hot) dogs”. I have also seen parents, principals, and teachers beaming with pride as they told us that baked potatoes and salsa and homemade pasta with meat sauce were replacing deep fried chicken nuggets. Intermediate students, that we have begun similar work with, have taken over, cleaning up their school vending machines and bartering with the school food caterer for a lower price for chocolate milk.

I admit I had some struggles as I have tried to make change happen. This kind of work takes a lot of time to build trusting relationships, and it has not been so good for my academic career. Writing up my research for academic publication has had to go on the back burner at times. While my students benefited from my “real world” experience with schools, I wasn’t as available as I should have been. There were times that I had so many presentations and meetings in a month that my older son (then 7) said to me, “Can I use your laptop when you go out tonight?” and I realized that he assumed that I would routinely leave again after supper, after being gone to work all day. My other son told his teacher that I worked for the Healthy Eating Alliance, not UPEI. My stay-at-home-with-the-kids husband was very supportive, but it was tough for him too.

Over the past year, I have accepted that I don’t need to be the one doing every presentation and that I can be successful without being “superwoman.” I am managing to carve out more time with my family, time to teach, time to write, time for fitness and time for me. Oh, yeah, and time to cook!

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