SCU Healthy Kids Consulting

Buchser Middle School

Leigh Jensen, Julie Guillaumin, Nick Young,

Teddy van der Velden, Danny Shafazand

March 16, 2017

SCU Healthy Kids Consulting
500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA, 95053
March 16, 2017

Buchser Middle School

111 Bellomy Street
Santa Clara, CA 95053

Dear Buchser Middle School,

Please find attached our project proposal brought to you by SCU Healthy Kids Consulting. This proposal
outlines a description of the organization and the problems it is currently facing, our goals and solutions
that we aim to implement, accompanied by a cost analysis, deliverable schedule and overall project
timeline.

Following discussions with Ms. Cecilia Biggs, we understand that the 6th grade class at Buchser Middle
School is presently being given a project which outlines real life scenarios including but not limited to:
annual income, taxes, number of children, and money spent grocery shopping. These real life scenarios all
include one common theme: cost effective, smart and beneficial decision making. When meeting with
Ms. Cecilia Biggs, she brought to our attention the need for furthered education on healthy lifestyles,
specifically healthy eating. Leveraging our education and expertise in this area, this is exactly what we
have set out to do in our project.

First, we plan to prepare a variety of lessons via interactive PowerPoint slides. Accompanying these
interactive lessons will be written and verbal reflection activities consisting of worksheets and written
reflections. The first reflection will be prior to the class lessons we teach allowing students to reflect on
current health habits. Following the two sessions of lessons and activities, we plan to have the students
write journal entries with any ideas they may have for implementing a healthier lifestyle in the near
future.

On behalf of Healthy Kids Consulting, we would like to thank you for giving us the opportunity to work
with you and make a lasting impact with your organization. We believe our combined education,
experience and skills will help to further the students understanding of the subject and gain excitement of
implementing healthier habits. We hope our proposed solutions will help to provide the sixth grade class
with nutritional knowledge that will last them a lifetime and transform the way these students think about
their everyday consumption.

Sincerely,
SCU Healthy Kids Consulting
500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA 95053
Leigh Jensen, Julie Guillaumin, Nick Young, Edward Teddy van der Velden, Sohrab Danny
Shafazand

1
Table of Contents

Executive Summary.3

Introduction..4

Rationale..6

Deliverables.7

Cost Analysis...8

Project Success Metrics...9

Delivery Schedule..10

Staffing...11

Discussion..13

Appendices.15

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Executive Summary
Objective 1: Create awareness, motivation and enthusiasm!

Learning how to make the conscious decision of nutritious eating is crucial in creating a healthy
lifestyle and will contribute to addressing the need for furthered education of healthy habits at
Buchser Middle School. Practically all public schools (99 percent) offer nutrition education
somewhere within the curriculum whether it be the relationship between diet and health, finding
and choosing healthy foods, nutrients and their food sources, the Food Guide Pyramid, or the
Dietary Guidelines and goals (FFRS). However, less than half of schools cover these topics
thoroughly. Overall, schools focus on increasing students' knowledge about what is meant by
good nutrition, with much less emphasis on influencing students' motivation, attitudes, and
eating behaviors. In fact, statistics show that fewer than one-third of U.S. schools provide
thorough coverage of topics related to motivation, attitudes, and eating behaviors (ODPHP). Our
objective is to create motivation and enthusiasm for eating healthy and creating an overall
healthy lifestyle.

Objective 2: We will show students what they are really consuming when they eat cafeteria food.

Opportunities exist for development of appropriate materials and greater coordination between
the curriculum and school resources. Nutritional messages communicated to students need to be
consistent, pervasive, and aimed and help motivate them to choose a healthy diet. The school
systems cafeteria provides nutritional information in the form of flyers and bulletin boards,
which very few children or teachers take the time to read it. Our goal is to display the nutrition
facts in a way that is easy and interesting to learn about during the school year.

Objective 3: We will show students healthy alternatives to currently favored snacks.

We believe that showing students healthy alternatives to their currently favored snacks will be
the most impactful and beneficial objective we have. Despite efforts to serve healthier meals to
school children, roughly half of U.S. elementary school kids can buy junk food at school.
Cookies, cakes, chips and many other unhealthy snacks are still sold through school vending
machines, cafeterias and snack bars even if they are not served at lunch. "Despite increasing
attention to food in schools and childhood obesity, over time there was no change in the
availability of food in competitive venues in schools" (Reinberg). With the understanding that
children will adapt to healthier foods when they are more readily available and have little or no
competition from fast or junk foods, we plan on showing these students ways to gain access to
healthy and equally delicious substitute snacks.

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Introduction: The Availability of and Ignorance Toward
Unhealthy Foods in Schools
Obesity in children has become an increasing problem in the United States today, and much of
this has to do with the food they are consuming at school. A recent analysis shows that 20% of
the rise in the BMI of children is directly correlated with the increased availability of junk
food in schools (Nradmin). Sugar-sweetened beverages, juices, and other juice drinks are the
main source of sugar in the diets of children and the consumption of these sugary drinks is
directly associated with obesity (Nradmin). One fifth of adolescents drink three or more of these
sugary beverages every day, the equivalent of one meal, and the schools continue to make it
readily available each day (Nradmin).

The USDA surveyed parents to see what they thought about the quality of the food their children
are eating at school. The study found that 88.9% of parents believed the food the schools were
serving was very or somewhat healthy (Nradmin). When the USDA surveyed these schools;
however, they found that 94% served a lunch that failed to meet USDA standards for
healthy school meals, far exceeding their recommendation for total fat and saturated fat levels
(Nradmin).

Above: On the left is what current school lunches look like, and on the right is what they should look like.

The combination of the lack of knowledge and the lack of healthy alternatives has had a large
effect on childrens lives. Unhealthy food affects students performance in class. Chandra
Kalscheur-Stegner, teacher at Hamilton Middle School, says that she sees more attention
problems, behavior problems, and exhaustion because theyre not well fed (Nradmin). But
the health effects of not eating healthy is the main concern. A recent study shows that half of
obese teenage girls become severely obese by the age of 30 (Nradmin). Dr. William Dietz,
Director of the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity at the Center for Disease
Control and Prevention, estimates that 1 in 3 children born in 2000 will develop diabetes
sometime in their lifetime, as a direct consequence of the obesity epidemic (Nradmin).

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Introduction - Continued: The Aggressive Marketing of
Unhealthy Foods to Children
Another problem relating to obesity is the 1 billion dollars per year spent on the marketing
of unhealthy food products for children (Nradmin). If the majority of the food products that
children are seeing at home and at school are unhealthy, then they probably do not know any
other way. The worst foods are getting marketed most aggressively to children. This is a
problem because children are unable to distinguish between healthy and unhealthy food. Margo
Wootan, Director of Nutrition Policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, says that
food marketing affects childrens food preferences, food choices, their diets, and their health. It
shapes what they want to eat; what theyre willing to eat; and what they want to eat into foods
that will kill them, that will give them heart disease, cancer, and diabetes (Nradmin).

This kind of serious illness or disease is what we are trying to prevent. We believe that there is a
real market and need for improvement in the education and options of healthier eating, especially
for middle school students.

Above: One of the main parties responsible for the childhood obesity epidemic is schools, for unhealthy foods in school lunches.

In 2011, Congress passed a new bill claiming to be making school lunches healthier; although, it
permitted French fries to be served as a vegetable, delayed the requirement to boost whole
grains, and categorized tomato paste and pizza as a vegetable (Nradmin).

Even though the problem has gotten better, it still very much exists, in Buchser Middle School
and beyond. We believe that we can make a real difference in how kids eat today and hopefully
give them some kind of awareness of healthy eating so that they can make good decisions in the
future.

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Rationale

Addressing Buchser Middle Schools Need for Nutrition Education

Buchser Middle School currently has implemented a comprehensive core curriculum that
addresses many different educational objectives that the school district and Department of
Education have outlined for middle school students. Core subjects like Math, English, and
Science are taught at the middle school, but one subject that is lacking recognition is Nutrition
Education for children and teens. Representatives from Buchser Middle School expressed their
need for this type of curriculum to help education their students on the importance of making
healthy choices and eating clean foods in their daily lives.

After taking into consideration the schools need for a program like this, our group of
experienced individuals set out to design a comprehensive curriculum that would teach students
not only how to make healthier choices, but also the importance of those choices, as well as how
to eat healthy and be cost effective when budgeting your monthly expenses.

Although Buchser Middle School specifically expressed interest in implementing this program in
their sixth grade curriculum, there is a widespread need for Nutrition Education on a national
level. We analyzed offerings from the school, as seen in the February cafeteria calendar (as
shown in appendix) and noticed large areas of improvement. Childhood obesity levels are at all-
time highs, and children are being exposed to genetically modified foods that may adversely
affect their physical health, cognitive performance, and athletic performance.

Our group at Santa Clara University has set out to try to influence a nation-wide change in
mentality regarding health-conscious choices from a young age. Buchser Middle School is the
epicenter of our influence, but we hope that we can inspire young adults to lead healthier lives
across the nation through enhanced curriculum in grade schools. It all starts with awareness,
education, and action.

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Deliverables
Confirmation from Buchser Middle School
We will request to the school to approve our proposal to being the engagement.

Distributed Paper Handout

A single hard copy handout for each student that contain key takeaways for healthy
eating so they can be further applied after the seminar. These handouts will be delivered
during the seminars.

In-class Seminars
We will educate the two classes of students with forty-five minute seminars through a
multimedia presentation, discussion of handouts and in-class activities.

Recommendation to the Administrators

Students will be given an assessment before and immediately after the seminar to gauge
the effectiveness of our seminar and to show the amount of information the students
retained. In addition to these quantitative results, we will utilize findings from our in class
seminars to recommend a plan of action for future curriculum for the school.

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Cost Analysis
There are no direct costs in implementing this proposal. There will be no transportation costs, as
Buchser Middle School is located 0.2 miles from Santa Clara University and the majority of the
presentation will be online with a PowerPoint and an online activity. The only cost that would be
incurred is the cost of the two deliverables that will be handed out to each student. This cost is
estimated to be about $14.40 total, so it is not significant enough to be formulated into a cost
analysis. Each piece of paper costs $.08 to print, so the 180 pages of deliverables costed $14.40.
The benefit of healthy eating education is much greater than the cost.

Since there are no significant direct costs in implementing this proposal, below is the cost
analysis of eating healthy.

This experiment proved that it is actually much cheaper to eat healthy meals than to eat fast food.
It took into account three tiers of grocery stores, one cheap, one medium priced, and one
expensive, and compared them to low, medium, and high cost fast food chains. For the grocery
stores, it used the healthiest foods, converted from the bulk price, to the price of one serving size
and for the fast food chains, it used food items that customers typically buy together at that
particular restaurant.

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Project Success Metrics
The best way to measure the success of health trainings are by visual confirmation, social
awareness, as well as various skill assessments. The trainings are successful if the children are
not only able to understand what we are telling them, but if these lessons are actually able to
impact their everyday life and decisions.

1. Majority of Students Are Aware of Healthier Alternatives

To make sure the students are able to distinguish a healthy food from an unhealthy food
we plan to incorporate an intra-presentation activity where we give students the
opportunity to compare what they had for breakfast with other students in the class. This
connects to the kids because they are able to compare everyday foods, like cereal, toast,
and eggs, to each other and see which foods are most nutritious. In order for this to be
measureable we will conduct this activity, measure the student's ability to guess which
breakfast is most nutritious, and hope to have over 50% correct responses. After
reviewing post-evaluation metrics, we achieved 83% correct responses.

2. Majority of Students Show a Tangible Action Plan for Change in Eating Habits

The most important thing we are trying to do is positively impact the actual eating habits
these children have in their everyday life. We plan on measuring this is by the written
responses the kids submit to us after our presentation. We ask the students to reflect on
the nutritional facts they have learned and plan on implementing themselves as well as
recommendations they will share with their parents. With this, we not only measure the
retention of the information, we also measure the intended application. This is what will
make what we have taught stick to them, increasing their social ownership of the
information. We will consider this successful if over 50% of the students are able to
create an action plan for themselves to change their eating habits to align with
healthier alternatives. After reviewing post-evaluation metrics, we found 76% of
students with intent to create a change for themselves.

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Delivery Schedule

Phase 1

Activity Due Date Parties Responsible

Group Brainstorming 1/17/16 All

First Meeting with School 1/23/17 Teddy, Julie, Leigh

Second Meeting with School 1/27/17 Danny, Nick

Group Meeting 1/31/17 All

Submit Proposal 2/3/17 All

Phase 2

Activity Due Date Parties Responsible

Group Meeting 2/7/17 All

Submit Proposal 2/9/17 All

Gather Materials 2/16/17 All

Conduct First School Session 2/23/17 All

Conduct Second Session 2/28/17 All

Phase 3

Activity Due Date Parties Responsibilities

Group meeting to reflect on 3/1/17 All

school sessions and prepare
for final class presentation

Final Presentation 3/16/17 All

Reflection of Project 3/23/17 All

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Staffing

Danny Shafazand Project Manager

Danny is currently a Junior Finance Major at Santa Clara
University who loves to workout, play basketball, and travel. He
has opened two of his own restaurants and has experience in
healthy eating and the preparation of healthy food.

As project manager at Healthy Kids Consulting, Danny is in

charge of the productivity of the group to ensure the delivery of
projects on schedule. He fosters clear communication among
group members to make sure every member is aware of the
current status of each project.

Leigh Jensen - Financial Manager

Leigh is a Junior Finance Major from Sonoma, California at
Santa Clara University. She enjoys cooking, animals, sports, and
traveling. Recently she just returned from studying abroad in
London where she was also able to intern.

As the financial manager here at Healthy Kids Consulting she is

able to build on her experience in finance and manage the cost-
benefit analysis on all projects we do. She makes sure we are
remaining profitable while also devoting ample time and money
to our clients.

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Staffing - Continued

Teddy van der Velden - Co-Editor

Teddy is a Junior Finance Major and Management Information
systems minor at Santa Clara University. He is from Seattle,
Washington and plans to be either a financial analyst or business
consultant once he graduates next year.

As co-editor at Healthy Kids Consulting, he works alongside Nick

Young to ensure the high quality of all business deliverables to
clients. He has proven strong writing skills and brings a detail
oriented mindset to the team.

Nick Young - Co-Editor

Nick is currently a Senior Management Information Systems Major
at Santa Clara University. He has plans to live in San Francisco and
work as a consultant for Accenture after graduation. Nick loves to
play soccer and kiteboard in his free time.

As co-editor at Healthy Kids Consulting, Nick works with Teddy to

make sure all documents sent to clients positively represent our firm,
specializing on making sure all documents flow together seamlessly.

Julie Guillaumin - Creative Director

Julie is a Junior Business Management Major and Entrepreneurship
Minor at Santa Clara University and loves to hike, exercise, and
spend time at the beach. Post-graduation, Julie is interested in
pursuing opportunities in Human Resources.

As creative director at Healthy Kids Consulting, Julie is responsible

for much of our marketing material and is credited for coming up
with solutions to some of the most difficult business problems. She
continues to make sure all business deliverables to clients are
aesthetically appealing.

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Discussion
In our time working with Buchser Middle School we had an hour long discussion and
PowerPoint presentation on healthy eating habits with two different sixth grade classes taught by
Mr. Biggs. Each class contained about 20 students, so in total we spoke to about 40 sixth graders.
Throughout these discussions we gave the students a test to gather data on their eating habits,
overall health, and nutrition knowledge. Additionally, we gave them a Fun Facts sheet on
healthy eating they read aloud and kept as well as conducted an interactive game that compared
the various breakfasts the kids ate that morning. With this, they were able to contribute to the
discussion while also learning valuable health information about the foods they eat every day.
Finally, we had the students write a response after our presentation to highlight what they learned
and how they plan to implement what they learned into their daily lives.

Our presentation and discussion proved to be a valuable learning experience for the sixth graders
because about 83% of them were aware of healthy eating alternatives after the seminar, 90%
remembered a healthy eating fact, and 76% of the students showed a tangible action plan to
living a healthier lifestyle.

Implications

What stood out most throughout this project is the blatant lack in nutrition education in the
current middle school curriculum. Our one-hour discussion taught the students more about the
choices they make on the foods they eat than anything they had learned before. The outcomes of
the tests and journal responses we received highlight the fact that just a simple discussion on
healthy eating can positively impact these middle school students. Many of them skip breakfast,
skip lunch, or regularly have meals high in sugar. These problems must be addressed at an early
age to stop them from continuing into adulthood. By comparing the lack of knowledge displayed
before the presentation regarding their daily nutrition intake to their knowledge after the
presentation, we see the clear improvement of understanding. After the presentation, the kids
walked away having great ideas on how to improve their eating habits.

This project proves how the nutrition education for our youth must be improved. One simple
lesson the sixth graders can relate to can go a long way and carry a lot of weight. This should be
implemented in all middle school curriculums, as it teaches these young men and women
valuable life skills.

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Discussion - Continued

Limitations

There were three main obstacles our team had encountered in the process of executing this
project.

1) Our first obstacle was having to address the problem of students not eating breakfast
and/or lunch. After our first presentation, the teacher made it apparent that many of the
girls in her classroom chose to not eat breakfast or lunch for a few different reasons and
she wanted us to address the importance of eating all meals. With this, in our second class
session, we were able to add to our presentation and activities to discuss the implications
of not eating breakfast. Ms. Biggs was pleased with our changes as we provided these
boys and girls with helpful insight.

2) Secondly, we found it much harder than expected to provide alternatives to popular

unhealthy snacks the students enjoyed. We decided to focus primarily on healthy
alternatives to categories of foods such as carbs, fruits, drinks and snacks.

3) Lastly, we found it very difficult to convey a strong message of healthy living to these
sixth grade classes in our allotted one-hour time slot. Reflecting back on this experience,
we decided it would have been more efficient to hold two seminars with the same class
instead of just one seminar with two different classes.

Recommendations

Our group would very much like this project to be continued by other health-related consulting
groups in the area or SCU students. As stated in our limitations, if we were to do this project
over again or if it were to be replicated by another consulting group, we would change how we
conduct the seminars. Instead of doing the same seminar for two different classes, we would
do two seminars for the same class so that the students could build on their learning.
Additionally, we would like to fit in more interactive activities because the students seemed to
really enjoy them and were most engaged during these activities. Something that we had
originally discussed but were not able to implement due to not having the time and preapproval
was having the students try to make some of the healthy snacks themselves. This would be a
fun activity for the students, but would require a significant amount of work on the consulting
groups part beforehand to get approval from the school and to work out allergy-related issues.

14
Appendices
Staff Resumes

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About Buchser Middle School1

Buchser Middle School is dedicated to creating contributing citizens who are lifelong learners.

At Buchser Middle School, we strive to:

Provide a Strong Focus on Academics

We have a knowledgeable, creative staff that promotes a challenging, rigorous
curriculum for all students.

Support Cultural Literacy and Academic Diversity

We create diverse learning experiences that raise awareness and tolerance of others, and
include a wide variety of curriculum and extracurricular activities to address the interests
of our students.

Foster a Positive School Environment

Our school is a physically and emotionally safe place that promotes student learning.

Promote Respectful Communication

Our school has a strong sense of community to support student success, which we convey
through respectful communication.

Develop the Whole Child

We build a strong sense of community through respectful communication.

Target Areas of Growth Goals:

1. English Language Learners
2. Professional Development
3. Data Management to Improve Student Achievement

1
Buchser Middle School Administration. "Buchser Middle School: Home Page." Buchser Middle
School: Home Page. Buchser Middle School SJUSD, 2017. Web. 1 Mar. 2017.

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Buchser Middle School Demographics2

2
FFRS. Nutrition Education in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools. Rep. National
Center For Education Statistics, July 1996. Web. 1 Feb. 2017.

21
Correspondence

22
Correspondence Continued

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Correspondence Continued

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Our Company Logo

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Works Cited
Buchser Middle School Administration. "Buchser Middle School: Home Page." Buchser Middle
School: Home Page. Buchser Middle School SJUSD, 2017. Web. 1 Mar. 2017.

FFRS. Nutrition Education in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools. Rep. National
Center For Education Statistics, July 1996. Web. 1 Feb. 2017.

Nradmin. Children in Crisis Need to Make the Switch Too! Nutrient Rich Superfoods.
Performance Lifestyle, Inc., 7 Sept. 2012. Web. 2 Feb. 2017.

Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. "Executive Summary." Executive Summary
- 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
Web. 15 Mar. 2017.

Reinberg, Steven. "Many U.S. Kids Still Buy Unhealthy Snacks at School." U.S. News. U.S.
News, 6 Feb. 2012. Web. 1 Feb. 2017.

Shipley, Kala. Childhood & Adolescent Nutrition. Rep. NUTRITIONdimension, Mar. 2010.
Web. 1 Feb. 2017.

Stendahl, Tyler. "Back to School Lunch Trends." Freshbitesimport. Freshbitesimport, 16 Aug.

2011. Web. 15 Mar. 2017.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. "Guidelines for School Health Programs to
Promote Lifelong Healthy Eating." MMWR Recommendations and Reports 45.RR-9
(1996): 1-47. MMWR. Web. 1 Feb. 2017.

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An Example of a Deliverable with Key Takeaways

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