Moving and Choosing Healthy Schools Parent Council Success Stories around Parent Engagement
Success Stories around Parent Engagement Print E-mail
Collected by Health Promotion Facilitators-Healthy Weights Initiative July 2009 

Rosemary School:

We have assigned a grade to each hot lunch, then the parent reps from each grade (who are usually volunteered) call in 3 - 5 parents per hot lunch to assist with the preparation and delivery of all our hot lunches. We have gotten parents who don't usually just volunteer, but are willing when asked for specific help. Our teachers then use the parent reps to call parents when they need some specific help in the class room or on a field trip. Parents are also called to bring ingredients for our school supper and auction

Great tips from Grasslands School District:

  • Ensure that the work is meaningful and the participants know that what they are doing is valued and valuable.
  • Communicate to the parents what is happening with the projects on a regular basis.
  • Acknowledge their involvement through personal cards or emails and at public functions.
  • Invite participation by individual calls or another form of contact.
  • Provide nutritious food. :o) (Usually the participants are VERY busy and involved people, and sometimes they haven’t even had time to eat between functions.)

Ponoka Elementary School:

A parent applied for and received a grant for $10,000 to support a smoothie and healthy snack project at the school. The project is called Growing Healthy Albertans. This parent spearheaded the project by first enlisting the support of the school administration, the parent advisory council and local businesses for donations. The success of the project depended on the help of parent volunteers coming to the school to make and distribute the smoothies and snacks to all students in the school twice per week. At first there was doubt that the volunteer base would be available to support the ongoing work of the project however this has not been the case. This parent was successful in enlisting approximately 28 parent volunteers to come to the school on a scheduled basis. She has provided the following suggestions to help enlist volunteers:
  • be specific with exactly what work is needed
  • give people the option of times to come to the school
  • be exact with time that people are needed, don't take advantage of their time
  • have people sign up for their volunteer dates
  • make sure volunteers are given appreciation and acknowledgement
  • tie the volunteer work to a vision for the project i.e.) healthy students learn better

Rolling Hills School:

We have incorporated them in our hot lunch program through a monthly healthy lunch that the parent group provides for our school. We also have parent volunteers that run our healthy concession stand at home games during volleyball and basketball season.

Father Turcotte Catholic School:

A parent at the school identified that there was a need to serve healthy food options through the school canteen. She took it upon herself to meet with the school principal to discuss the possibilities. Last year she volunteered to serve salads, fruits salads, whole wheat sandwiches/wraps and home made soups to the students at lunch hour. Each day she prepares the food herself and than uses a cart to take the food around to each classroom during lunch hour. The school has found that the students love the healthy food options and are therefore consuming more fruit and vegetables during school hours.

Penhold School:

A parent of three children in the community of Penhold shares her recent experience participating in a health initiative at the Penhold School.

Student teachers at the middle school, lead a six week healthy lunch challenge that involved students from grades 4-6. Letters were sent home to parents along with a Canada Food guide explaining that children needed to come to school during this six week timeframe with a healthy lunch that included all food groups in the CFG. The letters required that parents sign and return this to the school, so that the school knew that they were read. Students received a ticket each time they had 4 food groups in their lunches. Tickets were put in a draw box and a prize was given to the lucky classroom winners whose ticket was randomly drawn the end of each week. Each class received points for the number of students that had a healthy lunch. Points were collected for each of the classrooms with a certain level being required to win the prize at the end of the challenge. Each class that met the class requirements got to go swimming for an afternoon. This was a good activity that reminded parents to be conscious about the food groups that their children were bringing to school. One parent stated that “there was a learning curve for the students in that 1) they took note of what was going on around them with lunches that others brought to school and 2) they took more interest at home to make sure that all food groups were in their lunches”.