Teachers and APPLE program benefit students

Believing that the school setting can positively influence the lifelong physical, social and mental health of students, the University of Alberta’s School of Public Health created the APPLE program in 2008. APPLE, or the Alberta Project Promoting active Living and healthy Eating, supports positive lifestyles by urging students to eat healthy lunches and nutritious snacks, and by engaging in daily physical activity. Moreover, the school environment supports the project.

“We work with parents, teachers, students, administrators and other school partners to try to engage the whole community in discussions for healthy schools,” said Marg Schwartz, APPLE schools manager. “Every school looks different because in a comprehensive model, we use the voices in the school to ask what we need to do.”

Once the needs are identified, a full-time health facilitator is placed in the school whose role is to make the healthy choice the easy choice by changing environments. Activities may include classroom gardens, taste tests, healthy hot lunches, after-school cooking classes for students and their families as well as ideas for daily physical activity. By creating and sustaining supportive physical and social environments that foster lifelong health and learning, the home, school, and community work together to improve a child’s health.

A position for regional coordinator who will oversee and assist the facilitators in the schools was recently created to serve First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities.
“We have had good results, which have allowed us to expand the program to the Fort McMurray area, and to three schools in Edmonton which have a high Aboriginal population, and we will be in Mother Earth Charter School, Alexander First Nation, and two schools in the Northland School Division as well,” said Schwartz.

Resumes are being considered for the position. The job entails training staff and developing curriculum within each school, as well as representing APPLE at conferences and other knowledge exchange opportunities. The coordinator will be working collaboratively with senior level decision makers, from Elders to office staff, and working closely with school administration to clarify expectations and oversee the program delivery in each school.

“Our managers oversee the facilitators and work with them to make sure the goals of the school are being met. They provide the professional development of the facilitators,” said Schwartz, adding that she will be naming the successful candidate in the next few weeks.
“We are really excited to have the opportunity to move forward across the province,” she said.

The APPLE program needs to expand the success into other settings, including those where different operating rules and clientele exist.

“This project has proven to make a difference, including in First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities, where we need to make the cultural connection and how we honour each other in schools,” said Schwartz.