Here are some great ideas from Yukon projects.

2010

Nelnah Bessie John School
Brown Bag Olympics 2010
The goal of Brown Bag Olympics is to get on the podium by eating the minimum number of servings in each food group from Eating Well with Canada’s Food Guide every day for the duration of the Olympics.  Students record their food intake each day during the Drop the Pop initiative.  If students meet the number of servings each day, they receive 2 points per food group and bonus points for water. Daily and weekly points are tallied and progress displayed in the classroom or on a bulletin board.  In addition, students receive a healthy recess snack every day or several times each week.  Snacks can be anything from apples and cheese, to fruit kabobs, to banana pops, and smoothies.  Students really enjoy having a snack daily!

Individual Learning Centre
Soup for the Soul
At the Individual Learning Centre, many students do not have access to daily healthy food choices.  The Individual Learning Centre is a drop-in school and therefore, it can be difficult to plan activities.  Staff took the opportunity to offer healthy meal events over and above the regular available snacks. They saw it as an opportunity to nourish their students while modelling healthy eating.  The schools’ initiatives were "A healthy start to the week" Monday breakfasts, and "Soup for the Soul" Wednesday lunches. The soup was offered in conjunction with visiting Elders who attend the school to do beading with the students. Finally, the school created an ILC cookbook, incorporating students’ easy and healthy recipes, and a cookbook cover contest.

Kluane Lake School
Guess the amount of sugar for each drink!
Kluane Lake School created a poster invitation to Kluane Lake area community members for a dinner.  The dinner was held at the school and the students prepared and served ham, beef, mashed potatoes with gravy, salad and a dessert of wild berries and sponge cake.  The students organized a contest for dinner participants to guess the amount of sugar in popular drinks.  They also took the opportunity to talk about how our bodies burn energy by using carbohydrates and glucose.  

Del Van Gorder School
Eat, Drink and BE HEALTHY!
The senior Home Economics class baked a variety of high fiber muffins and served them on Wednesday and Friday mornings throughout February to the whole school.  The school decided that February would be our “Salute to Fun Fiber”.  Students baked nutritious cookies and served them along with creamy hot chocolate after our afternoon outings for sledding and skating.  We incorporated the nutrition theme in our Artist in the School activity days.  Composer/singer Steve Slade helped two classes write and perform songs based on nutrition and healthy physical activity.  The grade 6/7/8 class composed a song entitled Drop the Pop Rock!.  The Drop the Pop project was included in our REM (Rural Experiential Module).  Over two days, students from Grades 4 to 8 constructed authentic traditional Kaska drums.  To add to our theme of Traditional Yukon Culture, students made a variety of bannocks (whole wheat, wild cranberries, and raisins) to be served with the moose stew that other students prepared.  The meal was an excellent way to conclude the two-day event.  To make sure we were still using the blenders that we received in previous years from Drop the Pop we had fruit smoothies made by the Home Economics class for all students and staff.  We used some of the funds provided to ensure that each student could have a piece of fresh fruit everyday during the month.  The high school Home Economics class prepared lessons to teach to the younger students about nutrition and a well balanced diet.  To wrap up the project, a recipe book was created from the recipes that were used throughout the month. 

Takini Elementary School
Recipes for Healthy Living
Takini Elementary had classes develop healthy menus that included a recess snack and lunch for the school. Each class created a poster and displayed it in the front entrance. The school had three specialists (a Nutritionist, a FN representative from Kwanlin Dun, and a Dietitian/nurse) judge the posters and select one as the most nutritious menu. The winning menu consisted of a vegetarian lasagna, salad, multigrain buns and fruit kabobs. Each class prepared a component of the lunch and then the whole school gathered in the gym to share our healthy lunch. All classes also submitted recipes to a school cookbook entitled Recipes for Healthy Living. Some of the recipes were recipes to an active lifestyle and some were school lunch recipes. Classes participated in Brain Gym activities for morning recess to promote health and physical activity.  A school wide lunch promotes community and brings the parents into the school.  From an educator’s perspective, bringing the value and importance of healthy eating together with students’ education benefits everyone. It was great to see the school community sharing and enjoying a healthy lunch together.

Robert Service School
Healthy Food, Healthy Drink Choices
Staff members, Tr’ondek Hwech’in (TH) representatives and interested community members promoted a number of project activities.  The first activity was healthy drink choice presentations using the teaching kit from last year’s Drop the Pop to all students from Kindergarten to Grade 12.  After the presentations, every student received healthy fruit smoothies and a recipe to take home.  This event went over well. The second activity was a healthy hot lunch of chili and whole-wheat buns.  The senior cooking class and TH representatives prepared the chili and the high school students served the meal.  Everyone really enjoyed the free lunch. The third initiative was a Drop the Pop challenge that ran for three weeks.  The two classes (one elementary and one high school) that had the most success with the campaign received fruit kabobs at the end of the challenge as their prize.  This was very popular. The fourth project is our first ever RSS cookbook.  Students and staff submitted healthy recipes for the cookbook.

Elijah Smith Elementary
Recess Rocks, Healthy Snack Program
Elijah Smith offered a healthy recess snack program.  The project provided healthy recess snacks for students: once a week for primary students, once a week for intermediate students.  The healthy snack consisted of a piece of fresh fruit, cheese and crackers and granola bars.   The Social Justice Club made posters to advertise the program, and did daily morning announcements to promote the program and healthy snacking.   The club also helped organize the boxes that went to the classrooms on their designated days.   Both teachers and students responded extremely well to the program.   It was really great to see so many kid s outside at recess eating an apple!!  The Caught You Being Green program, which promotes being environmentally friendly by composting and recycling, was also tied-in with the healthy snack program.  The program gave teachers an opportunity to talk about healthy eating in their classrooms.   

Porter Creek Secondary School
Healthy Eating and Healthy Living
Porter Creek Secondary School used their funding to provide students with fresh milk during breaks to discourage them from drinking soda and other sugary drinks and to promote healthy bone development. In addition, the school invited a guest speaker from the community speak to grade eight students about healthy eating and to demonstrate some ways to prepare and eat fresh vegetables. The school also had a smoothie day and used fresh fruit to prepare nutritious smoothies as a healthy snack for students. 

2009

DECORATE HALLS AND CLASSROOMS
Have students create posters about the harmful effects of drinking pop and the benefits of making healthier food and drink choices. These visual reminders around your school will help motivate your stutents.

GET STUDENT COUNCIL INVOLVED
Get your student council to participate, to help lead challenges and competitions, or present skits on healthy eating and healthy drink choices.

HOLD AN IN-CLASS DEMONSTRATION
Displaying the negative effects of sugar and carbonated drinks is easy and effective. During Health, Home Ec or even Science class, students can be taught about the sugar content of various beverages, including demonstrations of how pop dissolves various substances, or how its corrosive effects can clean pennies.

“BRING A PIECE OF FRUIT FOR LUNCH” DAY Organize a competition where the class with the highest percentage of students who brought fruit will win a special snack break with fruit smoothies or fruit plates for everyone. Snacks can be accompanied by nutrition info to let kids know what eating healthy can do for their body and mind, and instructions on how to prepare simple healthy snacks for themselves.

EVERYONE LOVES A FREE LUNCH
Use your Drop the Pop funding to provide a hot lunch or two in February—maybe stew & bannock on one day, and chili and a bun on another. You can also provide “samples” of a healthy brown bag lunch for each student in the school… to be taken home at the end of the day and shared with their family, so that parents can see the kind of nutritious lunch and sugar-free drinks their kids should be taking to school.