Howard-Winneshiek Schools

Connecting kids to their food

Howard-Winneshiek schools are the Farm to School pilot for Howard County.  This page highlights some of their projects and activities.

Videos from Howard-Winneshiek:

115 children attended Elma Wisdom & Wellness Program

The Elma Wisdom & Wellness Program offered children a summer full of constructive actives, including physical education as well as arts – and even swimming lessons. Program Director Sandy Sullivan says that without help from the program's donors, it would cost $75-$90 per child participating in the program by the time they pay for the swimming lessons and bus fees.  Read more.

Keeping Kids Active in Cresco

Nutrition Director Cheryl Dickman says the community has responded well to the Cresco Wisdom & Wellness Program – a program she directs that is hosted at Crestwood High School.  "This is our first year here in Cresco, and I think it's become a great success," she said, adding that the program's success is owed in part to the many volunteers from the Crestwood High School Silver Cord Program as well as the Food & Fitness Initiative.  Read more.

How-Winn implements Healthy Living/Mileage Club

As you step foot inside the Crestwood Elementary/Junior High School, you may notice a lengthy, single-file line of colorful construction paper shoes running along the walls throughout the building. These paper shoes represent the many students at Crestwood who have implemented a healthier lifestyle through the district-wide Healthy Living/Mileage Club. Each shoe represents 100 minutes of exercise.  On Friday, March 25, the 200 students had accumulated 275,426 exercise minutes. Read more.

In their words: Howard-Winn students talk about FFI activities

The Howard-Winneshiek Youth Food & Fitness Team has 58 members involved in different areas.  Team members contribute to the school garden, walking clubs and nutrition education.  FFI team members share their experiences with food and fitness at their school.  Read more.

Students take the Senator to Lunch

Crestwood High School students hosted a special guest at lunch last week. State Senator Mary Jo Wilhelm dined in the school cafeteria as the guest of the Crestwood Food & Fitness team.

Lauren Obermann, Bronc Dykstra, Ariel Grinhaug, Lindsey Anderson, Kate Sheehy, Elyse Kerian and Kyler Friedhof led Senator Mary Jo Wilhelm through the lunch line and into the school board meeting room where the students shared the history and stories of the Food & Fitness Youth team at the Crestwood High School.  Conversation focused around their committee work on the milk machine, cross-age teaching and the school/community garden.  (Read more)

Elma Elementary Get Active in October

The Elma Elementary students and staff enjoyed a Fall Fitness Day on Oct. 6 by participating in a 30 minute activity by walking on the Elma bike trail.  The weather was beautiful and everyone was excited to see all the new improvements on the trail.

To celebrate Fire Prevention Week, the students and staff enjoyed a walk to the Elma Fire Station on Oct. 7.   Students got to see fire equipment and several demonstrations from local firefighters. 

Several staff members and their families took part in Elma's Fall 5K/10 mile Run/Walk on Oct. 10. Over 200 runners/walkers filled the trail with perseverance and smiles. The weather was sunny and warm for families to enjoy the bike trail and see the pretty colors of the fall season.

School District participates in Fall Fitness Day 2010

For the second year in a row, on Wednesday, Oct. 6, the Howard-Winneshiek Community School District participated in Fall Fitness Day. "We had 100 percent participation between Lime Springs, Elma, Crestwood Elementary and Junior High School," said Deb Obermann, Family Consumer Science (FCS) teacher and Food and Fitness coach, explaining that each school was able to choose their own activities to promote the day.  [Read more]

Food & Fitness Update by Kyler Freidhof

(Oct 2010)  Currently in the Food and Fitness program, students are in the process of Cross-Age Teaching.  This type of instruction allows high school students to teach elementary students about nutrition, foods and a healthy lifestyle.  A few weeks ago high school cross-age teachers went to Calmar for and in-service to learn effective methods for sharing information with elementary focusing on something new about food.  Topics include: apples, squash, cauliflower and potatoes.  Each session begins with Cardio Blast, which gets everybody moving and excited about the new food they get to try.

In addition, the Food and Fitness program will bring the milk machine back to the high school.  This machine offers products such as pudding, cheese, milk and yogurt.  New products are being ordered as well.  Students enjoy the variety of choices.

Cross-Age Teachers Proven Role Models

Kids eating tomatoes like apples?  Youth begging for Pepperjack cheese?  Sounds like fiction, but these were some of the actual reactions of students at Crestwood Elementary involved in Northeast Iowa's Farm to School cross-age teaching program.   "Cross-age teachers" are high school students who model lessons for elementary students.

 "When you show them a new food and they actually like it, and they bring [the folio] home and show their parents, and their parents end up liking it, it changes their whole perspective on different foods," said Kameron LeFebvre, a cross-age teacher at Cresco High School. (Read more)

School Food Service Workers Complete ServSafe Training

School food service employees from five school districts participated in a day-long food safety in-service taught by Iowa State University Extension specialists Cindy Baumgartner and Jill Weber.  The training was part of the Farm to School project in northeast Iowa.  ServSafe® is a program of the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation.  Participants learned about prevention, regulatory requirements, and how to improve food quality. (Read more)