One quality of a good school wellness policy is a list of goals. Within these goals, there is a preamble that describes certain issues with children not eating right. Common goals for a school wellness policy are giving children the opportunity to have access to healthy foods and offering physical activities to all ages of children. By promoting physical activity, schools promote good health. Another goal of these programs is to provide food and beverages that meet the recommendations of the U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
Another quality of a wellness policy is a statement that the school districts will take responsibility to ensure that the schools meet the stated goals. The school districts must agree to review, develop, monitor and implement programs that will work in conjunction with the wellness policies.
Most school wellness policies also contain a description of the types of meals the schools will provide to students. Some of the descriptions may include serving meals that are attractive to students, serving meals in a clean environment and setting rules about the types of foods they will serve. One common decision on a school wellness policy may state that the school will only serve low-fat milk, such as skim or one-percent.
School wellness policies may also describe other issues regarding meals, such as portion sizes, meal times and scheduling. For portion sizes, the school lists the size packages or servings of many of the foods served. The school also lists the amount of time they must give students to eat meals and at what times the meals are served. It is also important to have guidelines about students who receive free or reduced meals. A good quality of a wellness policy promotes the elimination of the negative stigma attached to those students.
The policy should have a section that discusses the school's opinion and rules regarding enforcement of physical activities on the students. Such items might require that students receive at least 60 minutes a day of physical activity and at least 50 percent of the physical education courses must consist of the students completing vigorous physical activities.