Irma M. Cromie Elementary School
Warren, Michigan

Irma M. Cromie Elementary School in Warren, MI offers healthy choices as part of their school breakfast and lunch programs, but needed nutrition education to help students better understand the nutritional benefits healthy foods provide. A grant from Action for Healthy Kids, funded by GoGo squeeZ, filled this need for Cromie Elementary School and 13 additional high-need schools in the Warren Consolidated School District in Michigan. These schools have worked with their school health teams to integrate nutrition education into multiple venues within the school environment.

Cromie Elementary used their grant to purchase nutrition education resources for classrooms, hallways and the cafeteria, providing them with an opportunity to create consistent messaging and nudge kids towards making healthy food choices at school and at home.

Two goals the school health team had for this Action for Healthy Kids Game On grant were to increase knowledge of healthy food and to provide opportunities for students to try healthy, new food options at school. Furthermore, the impact of this grant goes way beyond the school: Students’ families also learned about the nutritional benefits of food through taste tests and nutrition information being shared through newsletters, meal menus and the school website. Wen Guo, the district’s School Nutrition Director, said “When students can make a connection between what they learn in the classroom to choices in the cafeteria and at home, we begin to create healthy behaviors that can last a lifetime.”

To help reinforce the connection between the classroom and the cafeteria, Cromie Elementary offered healthy smoothie samples for the entire school. Students and staff enjoyed trying something new and exploring food combinations of fruit, vegetables and dairy they had not considered before the grant.

These are just a few ways a school can incorporate healthy eating into the school day and help a child to be more focused and ready to learn. Explore how to build healthy eating opportunities into your school environment with Step 4 of Game On. These tips and resources can add even more excitement to any school’s nutrition education initiative.