Contact: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Eight more FCPS elementary schools have met the HealthierUS School Challenge, a federal program that recognizes schools that have improved the quality of the foods served and provided students with more nutritious, healthy choices.

These sites received certificates in October:

• Gold:  Breckinridge, Dixie, Harrison, Millcreek, Sandersville, Tates Creek and William Wells Brown
• Bronze: Ashland

That brings the total to 29 honorees in Fayette County Public Schools.

School that met the challenge last fall included:

• Gold: Arlington, Booker T. Washington Academy, Deep Springs, James Lane Allen, Julius Marks, Liberty, Mary Todd, Northern, Russell Cave, Squires and Yates.
• Bronze: Athens-Chilesburg, Cassidy, Garden Springs, Glendover, Lansdowne, Meadowthorpe, Picadome, Southern Elementary, Stonewall and Veterans Park.

All 29 schools offer the “gold standard” menu; however, because meal participation criteria were less than 70 percent, some schools received the “bronze” designation.  

Since 2004, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service has recognized schools’ efforts through the HealthierUS School Challenge. Schools must meet a basic set of criteria. Among them:

• Provide nutrition education;
• Provide the opportunity for physical activity;
• Maintain an average daily participation of school enrollment for reimbursable lunches of at least 62 percent for bronze or 70 percent for silver and gold schools.