Wellness Initiatives

Through community partners, private and government support, LESD has been championing healthy lifestyle initiatives since 1994. Currently, the LESD Wellness Program is receiving support and providing education through the following initiative.

 

CalFresh Healthy Living (formerly known as Champions for Change) provides parent and student nutrition and gardening lessons at all LESD schools and the surrounding community including the cities of Hawthorne and Inglewood. This initiative encourages and empowers students and families to make healthier choices and be more active.

 

The Harvest of the Month (HOTM) is a program run in partnership by LESD Food Services and LESD's CalFresh Healthy Living team. The HOTM Program highlights a different in season California grown fruit or veggie during most months of the school year. We host recess & lunch time taste tests to introduce these items to students, and then offer that month's harvest on the salad bar twice a month. We change the items featured in the program on an annual basis. Here's the schedule for the 2019-20 school year. 

September:  Watermelon                            February: Cabbage

October: Apples                                            March: Carrots

November: Sweet Potatoes                        April: Tangerines

December: No HOTM                                  May: Stone Fruit

January: Rainbow Chard

                               

PAST INITIATIVES

Kaiser Permanente’s Thriving Schools Partnership supports student wellness at LESD. It will help LESD revamp and strengthen its existing Student Wellness Policy with input from students, teachers and parents. Physical activity time will increase for 2,300 kindergarten through fifth grade students at three elementary schools (William Anderson, William Green and Franklin D. Roosevelt). Physical education specialists also plan to target student leadership groups with messaging on the importance of regular physical activity.

 

Choose Health LA Kids brought together various partners to implement community-based public education, skill-building and environmental change to promote healthier lifestyles to children ages 0-5 and their families. The initiative, funded by First 5 LA, provided nutrition programs to families in Lawndale, Hawthorne and Inglewood from 2014 - 2016.

 

Lawndale Lifestyle is a local cable show that was supported by the City of Lawndale Cable Commission and produced by LESD’s Wellness Program. The show featured unique partnerships between LESD, Lawndale Library and the City that supported overall wellness for Lawndale families.