Teachers' Awareness of the School Nutrition Environment in the Champlain Region

Abstract

After the introduction of the Ontario School Food and Beverage Policy (PPM150), Healthy Schools 2020 was initiated to facilitate the policy’s implementation in the Champlain region. Few studies have evaluated teachers’ awareness of school nutrition policies. The purpose of this study was to explore teachers’ awareness of the current activities in their school nutrition environment. A cross-sectional online survey was sent to elementary school teachers in the Ottawa and Renfrew school boards. Descriptive statistics were used to calculate the frequency of nutrition-related activities at schools. Pearson chi-square was used to test for associations between awareness of policies and school food practices, and the presence of nutrition committees and changes to catered lunches and fundraising activities. A total of 243 elementary school teachers completed the survey. Most teachers (83%) were aware of the PPM150 and 25% were aware of the Healthy Schools 2020 initiative. Those who were aware of the PPM150 were more likely to attend school meetings, work at a school where the policy was posted, learned about the policy through the school website, and heard about the policy during professional development days (p<0.05). There was no difference between being aware of the PPM150 or Healthy Schools 2020 with the use of food as a reward. Furthermore, the presence of a school nutrition committee was not associated with any changes to catered lunches and was significantly associated with using food for fundraising (p<0.001). The results indicate that awareness of the PPM150 and the presence of a school nutrition committee did not result in changes in the school nutrition environment. There is a need for more communication about nutrition policies to school members, collaboration between partnerships and services, and training for teachers to improve school-based programs in the Champlain region.