This week's healthy schools highlights

Durango’s schools get $200,000 donation

In a time of unprecedented cuts to K-12 education, Durango School District 9-R announced that it would be adding money to its coffers for a change with a $200,000 donation from the Marc and Jane Katz Family Fund. The district will receive $175,000, and the Durango Foundation for Educational Excellence will receive $25,000.

The money will allow the district to expand or speed up several projects, including concurrent enrollment and a school-based health center at Florida Mesa Elementary School, said district Superintendent Keith Owen. Read more in the Durango Herald.

Time for culinary boot camp

It’s summer school for cooks so your kids can eat healthier meals at school next year. Watch the 7NEWS report.

Hinkley Environmental Club plants organic garden

The Hinkley Environmental Club began work on its community garden last week near the fence on the outer edge of the Aurora Public Schools Stadium. Read the YourHub story.

Join the Cherry Creek Fitness Challenge

Have fun, stay fit, and get your whole family in on the action by joining the Cherry Creek Fitness Challenge this summer.

Designed for Cherry Creek elementary school students and their families, the challenge works like this: between Memorial Day, May 30, and Labor Day, Sept. 5, keep track of all your physical activity and convert it to miles (using the handy dandy mileage conversion guidelines below). The goal is to log the equivalent of 26.2 miles – a marathon – over the course of the summer, with the last mile completed with family, friends, classmates and teachers at the First American State Bank (FASB) Fitness Festival on Sat., Sept. 10.

The Cherry Creek Fitness Challenge is part of the district’s Comprehensive Wellness Strategy, which promotes healthy students and schools through wellness, good nutrition and regular physical activity.

Elementary school students who participate in the Cherry Creek Fitness Challenge and the FASB Fitness Festival will receive a medal and recognition in their school newsletter. See your P.E. teacher for more information as well as mileage tracker sheets, mileage conversion guidelines, and FASB Fitness Festival registration forms. Those forms are also available at http://www.fasbfitnessfestival.com/race.htm.

All physical activity counts. Read more on YourHub.

Possible chocolate milk ban in schools stirring up trouble

SEATTLE – The debate over whether to offer chocolate milk in schools is gaining attention. The Superintendent of the nation’s second largest school district, Los Angeles Unified Schools, is pushing to remove high-sugar, flavored milk from school menus over the summer. Learn more at 9NEWS.

Out with the food pyramid, in with MyPlate

WASHINGTON – First Lady Michelle Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack have unveiled the federal government’s new food icon, MyPlate, to serve as a reminder to help consumers make healthier food choices.

MyPlate is a new generation icon with the intent to prompt consumers to think about building a healthy plate at meal times and to seek more information to help them do that by going to www.ChooseMyPlate.gov. The new MyPlate icon emphasizes the fruit, vegetable, grains, protein and dairy food groups. Nutrition, health and consumer advocates applauded the MyPlate icon and reiterated their commitment to improving the health and wellbeing of Americans nationwide. Read more at the USDA.

Sport drinks could be harmful, U.S. researchers say

Sports drinks aren’t necessary for children and teenagers and are likely to contribute to obesity, according to U.S. researchers urging parents to limit consumption of the beverages. Read more at Bloomberg.

Why playing video games might make you fat

According to new research conducted at the University of Copenhagen playing video games such as Electronic Arts’ FIFA 11 will make you fat. Their recent study was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Read more in Forbes.

About our First Person series:

First Person is where Chalkbeat features personal essays by educators, students, parents, and others trying to improve public education. Read our submission guidelines here.