Currently the state of Texas requires all school districts to have a coordinated school health program and a nutrition board. The goal of this program as defined by the CDC is to, “prevent chronic disease and promote the health and well-being of children and adolescents in schools.” (2019). Currently there are only three approved coordinated school health programs approved by the Texas Education Agency (TEA); as of right now, HealthStart is working to qualify as one of these programs. These programs have specific requirements such as: offering a health education curriculum, physical activity education, nutrition services, and parental involvement (CATCH, 2014). HealthStart offers all of these services in their curriculum and nutrition labeling system, which will ultimately help them qualify as one of these programs. During the internship, parents and teachers surveyed in the Bell and Coryell County school districts indicated that their children’s school nutrition programs failed to meet all of the requirements set by the state ultimately falling short in providing a comprehensive health education service. The Participants indicated that the HEY and What are You Feeding curriculum would benefit the children enrolled in these two districts and improve their health overall, and their education. These data points are important tools the organization can now utilize to implement their programs in more schools and to help them qualify as a coordinated school health program.
One of the biggest issues in improving the access schools have to implementing coordinated school health programs is the lack of funding. Javier Valdez the executive director of HealthStart stated in an interview that, “while, many schools would like to implement our curriculum they are unable to due to cost and funding” (2021). This issue could be addressed through the allotment of a funding or the creation of a policy on either the local or state level. Another possible source of funding suggested by Javier was the utilization of governmental grants that cities can provide. Unfortunately, neither Bell nor Coryell County had something like this available for their school districts. The creation of an endowment for programs dedicated to nutrition education in schools would help in improving the access to health education for children in these districts. After the results of the teacher and parent survey evaluating if there was an interest in the HEY! And What are You Feeding program, there was a strong interest in these programs. This information is important and can be used as leverage to encourage the school districts to implement these programs at their schools. Using this interest and information, they now have reasoning to put aside money to fund these programs or can engage in fundraising to implement them into the schools. Another method to improve funding would be to advocate for an amendment to the initial law that requires schools to implement a coordinated health program. This amendment would create a clause to help ensure funding is available for schools who would like to implement the approved programs into their schools. Grass roots advocacy to get signatures and generate support for the implementation of this policy can be utilized in these two communities. Finally, the state of Texas currently has a farm to school act that works to improve the access children enrolled in public school have to locally grown foods. Utilizing this policy and implementing it into the programs would help assist HealthStart in implementing their programs in public schools.