Park City School District considers wellness policy promoting local food, removing classroom treats

PARK CITY — The Park City School District has some new ideas on how to make their school lunches and the classroom healthier.

The school district wants to use more local sources and cook more from scratch for their seven schools in Park City

“It also encourages us to look at local sourcing, and building relationships with local farms,” said Child Nutrition Director Russell Owen.

Owen says the part of the proposal getting more of the attention deals with removing snacks or treats as rewards or incentives for academic achievement. However, he was not sure whether parents would get behind the plan and obey the rules.

“Is it feasible, is it something we can actually control?” he wondered. “When you have this many kids in the district, is it a policy that can actually be enforced?”

Owen also wonders if Park City kids would do better if they knew how to make better decisions about food, rather than have the choice removed from them.

“At some point, they are going to have to make a decision for themselves. Removing that at an early age, what effect that has is questionable,” he said. “We don’t really have the answer to that.”

There are also other pieces to the plan.

“We’re putting more healthy food in front of them that’s higher in fiber and has more components to it. What we think is they need a little more time to finish their meal,” he said, pointing out the school day will include more time to sit at the lunch table.

The board will vote on the policy later this month.

Follow @kslmrichards